Well this is Different?
by Blackwal
Summary: Jaune's Semblance has activated and he is about to restart his life, long ago helost track of how many lives he has lived. Though this trip proves to be different, for the first time ever someone has gone back with him. Jaune for the first time is not alone as he prepares to face off against Cinder and her allies with Yang at his back does he finally have a real chance?
1. Chapter 1

**Greeting's Readers**

 **Dunno who will be reading this or their personal preferences to characters but this is a Jaune and Yang story. There is a relationship there but it is not and will not be a focus of my writing.**

 **The Initial Chapters will have a heavier focus on Jaune but as we proceed it will be a more even spread between the two as the story progresses.**

 **I have read some wonderful fan-created fictions on the world of Remnant and decided to make this profile to write a story of my own I have taken some ideas from my previous stories on other fiction and also adapted some ideas from stuff I have read over the years.**

 **I have no update schedule as of yet as this is a new project and do not know the time I will be able to give to it.**

* * *

Jaune Arc was having the worst day of his life.

He was about to die for the... Jaune paused with thought. Why was the only time he thought about how many times he died when he was about to die again.

Jaune shook his head forcing his mind back to the present, looking around he noticed he wasn't alone, he was tied to someone else, knowing who it was was easy since he only had one living friend left in this go-round of his life.

"Yang?" Jaune spoke aloud after giving a quick glance around the room making sure they were alone but his trained eye telling him more in the few glances than he needed to know.

"Grrfd" Yang's reply while unintelligible at least confirmed she was alive, though judging the noise she made she was either gagged or more likely after the beating they had received was also possible to be a broken jaw.

Roman Torchwick had caught them, five years since the fall of Beacon, three years since the deaths of every other member of both teams RWBY and JNPR. After months of constant fighting in the Grimmlands being hounded by Salem's minions the one that finally managed to catch them was the abomination that had become Roman Torchwick.

Thinking of the man seemed to cause him to materialize, walking into view from behind a crate. The Roman he now knew stood near him staring at him a grin spread across his face, he twirled an umbrella and went about placing something beside his captives.

Roman finished whatever task he had set himself too and turned around and left. Jaune knew talking to the man was pointless, ever since Neo's death at the hands of Team JNPR, as much as it could be blamed on them anyways, the man never spoke a word again but instead took to being a mute like Neo was and also a far more troubling opponent.

The only consistent thing about the man is everyone he has killed has been in the same way Neo died, so Jaune was confident the item placed beside them was a timed explosive and that the building he was in was a Dust warehouse and that he was going to die and sadly so was Yang.

Jaune felt the pang of regret that he always felt when he knew his end was coming, the regret was always worse when his friends died alongside him.

Jaune's death would trigger his Semblance he didn't even need to have his aura unlocked and as far as he could tell he could not shut it off and oh how he tried at times.

Jaune would die, and then he would blink and it would be four years before the fall of Beacon and his life reset. No variance in date hour or time, he would die and then on the night of his thirteenth birthday he would reawaken in his younger body and with practiced effort he would grab the Lien from his mother's stash in the kitchen, grab the supplies his father keeps ready at all times in case of immediate jobs and he would retrieve Crocea Mors from the position above the family fireplace.

Jaune ever couple of dozen deaths would instead of doing this spend the three years with his family before secretly leaving to attend Beacon though armed with considerably more knowledge, skill, and muscle mass.

In Jaune's mind, he was already planning his next life trying to find some way to prevent the fall of Beacon along with other events that he seemingly could not change no matter how many attempts he has made.

Even as his thoughts went to tomorrow he still struggled in the present, a few quick practiced motions and his wrist was dislocated and he slipped one hand from his bonds. Quickly he popped his wrist back into place and undid the rest of his restraints, he had no hope of living but his body refused to give up.

After clearing his head and scanning the room while Roman had set up the explosive, Jaune felt his injuries, he was bleeding internally and judging from a headache and the sluggishness of his movement's he could expire at any moment, now he was fighting for Yang hoping her injuries might be survivable.

"YANG, YANG WAKE UP!" Jaune shouted at the woman in front of him, and after a bit of shaking her eyes opened and better yet focused and almost immediately winced in believable pain. Jaune proceeded to untie her and pick her up and carry her to safety, Jaune knew such a place didn't exist since the condition they were in even if they were outside Roman would not be far away, and he would just finish it by throwing them back inside. No, this act was all for her so that when they died she would know he was doing his best to try and save them the same way she always remembered him from the first day at Beacon all the way to their end.

A gentle blue light, Jaune knew this light, it meant he died he always saw it for a few seconds as his world ended the light was comforting and signaled that his Semblance had activated. The explosion ripped through the warehouse, Jaune was impaled from behind with flying shrapnel and to Jaune's horror, Yang was impaled also by a piece that was sticking through him into her.

Yang looked at her chest and then up at Jaune, a trickle of blood escaping from his mouth, Yang wanted to reach up and wipe the blood away but found the strength was beyond her. Yang smiled for the last time and before she died she wished her jaw wasn't broken as she just thought of a pun that would make the blond man carrying her blush, well maybe not he seemed to be running low on blood to be able to blush, with that final thought Yang Xiao Long's mind went quiet.

Jaune closed his eyes, the blue aura present even after he had shut them, he knew when he opened them again he would be young again, young alive and marked with another failure but even still no matter how much he wanted this to be over his Semblance refused to allow that and so Jaune opened his eyes again.

* * *

Everything was predictable, it was 10:27 in the evening of his Thirteenth birthday he was in his bedroom alone, to his left was his scroll on his side table, he was still wearing his jeans and a simple white t-shirt. Everyone in the house was asleep, his father would wake up in two hours to relieve himself and past that no one in the house would stir until his mother woke up to begin the day at a crisp 6:03 in the morning.

Jaune went over the plan in his mind even though at this point it is entirely possible he could perform his escape in his sleep at this point, but even still his mind and body forced him to remain cautious, remembering some instances where he failed in his escape attempt and then being trapped for months in some instances where he was watched by nine very observant Hawks.

Jaune rolled out of bed and slipped into his shoes, next he grabbed a backpack from under his bed filling it with changes of clothes a spare set of shoes and a few personal items from around his bedroom. Sealing the bag shut he then grabbed his hoodie and slid that on over top his white T-shirt, he grabbed his scroll placing it on vibrate more out of habit than any real concern it would ring, he knew his first call would be tomorrow from his concerned mother and family bombarding his scroll with messages.

He set it to vibrate more to keep them out of mind until he could get the tools he needed to alter his scroll to block certain signals.

He always felt the worst about that but he consoled himself that in every lifetime, each and every one, he always made contact with them and with bumps and starts they forgave him, he did this to selfishly escape the guilt he always felt when leaving them.

At 10:47 his bedroom finished, Jaune went through his mental checklist, more than once he had forgotten an item, though typically his bedroom items were the easiest to replace nothing truly essential came from here. Jaune moved his bag to the entryway of his home and placed it beside his father's traveling kit which contained all the real supplies Jaune would need. Camping gear a week's worth of dried rations, well a week for his much larger father, Jaune always managed to live for a month of what his father consumed in a week, his father being a fit and limber man whereas Jaune was very much a teenager still in need of filling out but at thirteen already stood at six feet tall.

Slipping into and out of the kitchen was easy, farthest from where the family slept, Jaune grabbed the Lien from the place it always was, this he didn't feel too badly about in one of the lives where he choose to stay with his family and on many preceding ones to follow Jaune learned that this money was destroyed in a small kitchen accident where the youngest Arc girl was helping to make cookies and set the kitchen on fire destroying the cupboard and the money within.

Stepping out of the Kitchen Jaune looked at his blade, Crocea Mors, hanging from the wall, gingerly he took it down knowing better to draw the blade as it always woke his father. Jaune carried Crocea Mors to his bag and placed it inside with just the hilt poking out the top. shouldering both bags and as always cursing his scrawny frame Jaune slipped out the door walked down the path to the village and turned on the road leading north out of the Village.

* * *

"VRRRT"

Jaune paused.

"VRRRT"

Jaune felt his pocket with his hand.

"VRRRT"

Jaune's scroll was vibrating.

Mentally Jaune went over everything in his head, his leaving was perfect no one would call him until his mother tried in the morning after he failed to show for breakfast and his room was found empty.

He was too close to home, if they discovered him missing this early his father would be able to track him down, he needed every hour he had to be able to escape from him any less and his father had found him on many occasions.

Jaune did not panic if he did his trail would be even easier to find so instead he took out his scroll and did not answer it but looked at who was calling. No one he knew judging by the number but that actually made him more curious, Jaune knew random chance still existed, even with predetermined events there were still always variations to what could happen some, minor some major, but in all of his hundreds or thousands of repeats his scroll had never received a call from anyone until he was noticed missing.

"VRRRT"

Jaune did not answer but he turned on his voice mail again, another function he turned off as to avoid the guilt of listening to his family beg and plead for him to return home. The scroll clicked and his voice mail picked up after a few quiet moments less than a minute the light flashed from green to red signaling the other line had hung up.

Jaune waited a few moments and when the phone didn't begin ringing again and he was confident it wouldn't as his family would have bombarded his Scroll.

As Jaune walked he lifted the Scroll to his ear, the message wasn't a visual one just a voice recording, putting the scroll to his ear he hit play.

"Hello, you have reached the magnificent Jaune Arc dating line if you would please leave your name and number I will be happy to call you back to set up our date."

Jaune's face paled, he forgot that was his voice mail message, in all his lives he never once changed that even after getting into Beacon, oh god no wonder people to this day no matter how bad ass he acted and cool he tried to be anyone who ever called him was hit with a nasally prepubescent voice and a terribly bad pickup line, right then and there Jaune considered running himself through with Crocea Mors and he doubted any man alive if they knew the reason would try and stop him.

Swallowing hard Jaune hit the Play button for the only message on his scroll.

"Jaune" A voice he was all too familiar with tentatively called out through the Scroll a voice he would not hear for three more years.

"Jaune I..." another long pause "If you get this message and know who I am please call me..." another pause followed by a soft click as the line went dead the person leaving the message had hung up.

"..."

Jaune stood in the road frozen, in time somewhere in the back of his head a part of his brain was kicking him to start moving and eventually that part won as his legs started to carry him forward but the rest of his mind began to explode into a million different factions, each trying to make sense of one small phone call.

"Yang" Jaune smiled as his legs carried him forward his mind trying to fill in the blanks as for how she contacted him and failing pretty hard, but he resolved once he had done his night's march he was going to call her.

* * *

"I died" was the first thought that entered Yang's mind when she awoke.

She didn't wake up screaming, nightmares didn't affect her anymore, not after the things she had seen and experienced, the deaths of her sister and her friends had muted her mind to what the horror's her sleep could bestow upon her, she couldn't even remember the last time she dreamed.

Yang was Twenty-three years old, everyone she knew was dead, the only person she had left was Jaune Arc the one who she thought when she first saw him getting airsick in a bullhead figured wouldn't make it past Beacons initiation. The boy had he proved her wrong her and almost everyone who crossed paths with him.

Jaune was the most capable person she had ever met, hell the fact that she is lying here thinking of that is proof, she had been impaled she thought she herself was dead but somehow Jaune, even impaled himself had managed to escape, carry her somewhere safe, and apparently cared for her for a considerable amount of time.

She noticed a long amount of time had passed as first off her Jaw didn't hurt, not just didn't hurt it was fine not broken or anything. Yang brought her arm up, left arm, never really much liked her right metal arm, yeah it was bad ass and concealed all kinds of tricks to confuse and punish enemies but she didn't like touching her body with it.

Running her left arm across her jaw she wondered how much time had passed, she felt weak, her ever-present tan from being in the Vacuo desert has faded away.

It had to have been months, she has been unconscious and bedridden for months and she felt... actually, she felt fine thinking to herself, better than fine now that she really felt about and oddly her robotic arm wasn't feeling like a dead weight at her side, all the stranger she wondered why Jaune would leave it attached, he knew how to remove it and...wait she paused thinking to herself where did Jaune get a new arm for her, Roman destroyed hers and though Jaune was pretty handy laughing at her own mental pun he wasn't good enough to fix what had happened to it.

Yang lifted her right arm her...she stared at it her fleshy human arm...what?

Yang sat bolt upright, she looked around her room, wait it was her room her bedroom back on Patch, but that was impossible Patch fell two years after Beacon, it was where her friends and teammate's died, they burned their bodies in the house she was currently in, not allowing anything to be left for Salem's perversions.

Yang glanced at her clock it told her both the time and the date it was 10:32 just a couple minutes had passed since she woke up, the date seemed confusing, if the clock was to be trusted it was now ten years ago, the day also seemed to jog Yang memory after quick mental scan she realized it was Jaune Arc's birthday.

Pushing that silly thought out of her head she scanned her, well, everything, room, body, and memories she could not figure out what had happened she was alive, she was younger, time had apparently turned back for her when she died. Was this normal? was this what happened when you died, you get returned to a happy point in your life?

It was bordering on midnight, Yang was alive and confused but she even though she didn't look it at the moment was a seasoned huntress and had dealt with some pretty insane situations, she sat in her room at her desk and began to write things down, nothing important just a few errant thoughts to help her focus, a habit she had formed over the years after Beacon.

 _Died to Explosion set by Roman  
Woke up in past with my thirteen-year-old body  
Jaune was present also dead?_

Yang stopped writing mostly because she didn't know what to add to that. Figuring best not to dwell on anything currently she decided she needed her Scroll, due to Tai's rules her Scroll was downstairs in its charger. Smiling she left her room padded downstairs quietly and grabbed her scroll, she was about to head upstairs when she noticed the kitchen light was on.

Glancing inside Yang spotted eleven-year-old Ruby passed out in a cookie-induced coma, Yang's eyes began to tear up at the sight, she sniffled back a tear and walked into the kitchen picked up her younger sister hugging her tightly and carried her upstairs and put her to bed as she tucked her in Ruby smiled, half conscious "Heh heh the perfect crime" before she fell back into a deep content sleep.

Yang escaped back to her room breathing hard, not from carrying her sister no that was nothing but from the emotions, she felt seeing Ruby again, alive and well.

It was almost an hour past when she woke up when she started dialing she would stop and start multiple times sometimes because what did you say to someone who had never met you before.

"Hi, Blake it's me, Yang, your partner at Beacon three years from now! So hey I just woke up from dying and figured I should call my partner and chat for a bit!" Even to Yang's mind that sounded crazy for more than one reason. Yang sat stumped, she couldn't talk to any of her teammates and friends, Ruby didn't seem to be aware of anything and seemed entirely like herself as Yang remembered and didn't want to have to have that conversation with her sister anyway.

Weiss at this point in time would just think I was some rabid fan that got her personal scroll information and used it to contact her and knowing what she knew of Weiss's sister and father would expect to have a SDC security force in Signal by the next morning to arrest a thirteen-year-old girl that could be a threat to well in Winters mind her sister safety and to Jacque well to his company.

Blake was out of the question as she was still embroiled with the White Fang and probably did not even had a scroll that Yang could feasibly know how to contact.

Yang did smile at one thought "Adam Taurus I know how your Semblance works and this time things will be different" Yang rubbed her right arm smiling, if this was a do-over of her life a second chance and all that she would enjoy killing that sadistic monster again, she smiled remembering one of the last things Jaune and her did before Roman Torchwick caught them.

Smiling as she remembered finally backing Adam Taurus into a corner, most of his White Fang troops had abandoned him, Blake's father and mother had heard what befell their daughter and they rose up and took over the White Fang, leaving Adam only a small force of extremists. Salem had even tired of the childish Faunus abandoning him to his fate when he lost control of the Fang, Yang smiled grimly realizing that in some small way she owed Salem for abandoning the man, it hardly made up for any of the wrongs Salem had committed to her and her friends but in the case of Adam she felt some joy that Salem cut him loose as it allowed Jaune and herself to finally deal with the Faunus.

Weiss, Blake, and Ruby were all out of the question. Pyrrha Nikos was the same as Weiss only for the fact that she wouldn't be arrested for just making the phone call but no help could come from her. Ren and Nora were orphans and according to them only just before Beacon could they afford scrolls of their own.

That left Jaune, reliable Jaune even in her second life he stood out among others, and the person who could maybe be someone to talk to, but she had to find some way to get his trust, still drawing a blank as to how that conversation could happen still trying to figure out how to talk to any of them.

Then it struck her like a bolt of lightning she wouldn't have to talk to him she just had to let him know who she was if he knew her then he would reach out to her.

Yang picked up her scroll and punched in a number, a number that she knew by heart and let it ring, six rings in his voice mail picked up.

"Hello, you have reached the magnificent Jaune Arc dating line if you would please leave your name and number I will be happy to call you back to set up our date."

Yang smiled a very odd smile her mind screamed at her to laugh! Time to laugh later like to his face if he knows who I am. Yang filed this memory away to be brought out later, she would cherish it forever.

Anyways her mind raced, SAY SOMETHING, she screamed internally.

"Jaune I..." She paused not sure what to say and then just biting the bullet, "If you get this message and know who I am please call me..." Yang panicked slightly at the end wanting to say more but if he didn't recognize her voice she didn't want to give up too much, if he didn't know her she wanted him to be the same man she would know at Beacon and even a name might cause issues.

The deed done Yang decided to call it a night, as time ticked by Jaune could be asleep and not answer her until morning though judging by his voice mail even if he didn't know who she was he might just hit the recall feature and try and set up a date regardless.

Yang smiled to herself remembering all the times Jaune and she had been together and trailed off to sleep.

* * *

Jaune made a simple mistake in his confusion from the night before from Yang's quick call, a decision to return the call in the morning when he put enough distance between himself and his huntsman father who could track him down if he was even slightly lax in his normal escape procedures. The mistake was his scroll, it had not stopped ringing nor would it for many days not until he had the tools and time to disable a few things.

Jaune sighed heavily as he marched through the forest knowing the path he would use as he had used it hundred's of time with little variance. Jaune shut off his scroll to save battery power planning his next move, normally he would travel to the third town over and purchase the tools needed to alter a scroll. Now that task seemed doubly important but he thought of one additional plan, Patch. He knew how to get there it wasn't hard and he even knew a bullhead pilot who knew how to forget about a young teen traveling alone as long as said teen was willing to hand over a little Lien.

Jaune stopped just for a minute and stared into the forest glancing east, the way he was now headed, and then north in the direction, he would need to go to see said Bullhead pilot. A minute passed and Jaune was heading north this would be a longer trip but what did it matter he had time and for once in all of his many lives there might actually be a reason to go to Patch.

Jaune remembered some of his earlier visits to Patch, in his past he sometimes tried to attend Signal, that had never once worked and almost always ended with him shipped back home to his mother and father, after he realized Signal was never going to be a place for him to study Jaune made other plans and trained his body elsewhere.

Jaune still couldn't come up with a reason as to how or why Yang knew him, people had died with him before many times, Jaune briefly fantasized about true loved bringing her back with him and the realistic part of his brain kicked that side of his brains ass out a window. No Yang and him sure they might have had sex, not just in the past lifetime but in many others as well so that wasn't it or else he would have found out this perk to his Semblance long ago and much like some of Blake's books would have fucked his way through them all in some weird Harem story so that they could all come to the past with him. An empty corner of Jaune's mind laughed as he thought how this would work and the logistical nightmare a harem would be but it was something to distract him while he walked.

If nothing else it let Jaune's mind wander on how we would have to somehow manage to seduce and sleep not only with girls but he would have to save Ren, Sun, Qrow and Ozpin to name a few he would want to keep alive.

* * *

Three days of walking one day in a run down Bullhead and another Day walking and Jaune was almost at his destination, he managed to track down the tools he needed in Patch to alter his Scroll but that wasn't something to do while walking, he would need a quiet and clean place and a few undisturbed hours and while it was quiet outside any amount of dust or debris inside a scroll case can cause issues and Jaune didn't want to bother with that so instead he walked, he walked right up to the path that leads to the Xiao Long home.

Jaune had no idea how to proceed though, Tai was a very overbearing father when it came to boys around his girls and it was doubly bad if Qrow was around, Qrow might joke and play around when Tai would be overly serious but Qrow always had a very evil glint in his eye when boys came around.

Jaune sighed and started down the path hoping that Qrow was on one of Ozpins missions and Tai had some reason to stay behind at Signal late today.

As Jaune entered to treeline he felt his legs buckle and then he was on his back staring into the sky.

"RUBY" Yang yelled "What poor person did you cripple this time" Seeing the pile of his sister and a young teen. Yang quickly gasped as she saw a familiar weapon sticking out of one of the boy's bags, reaching down she pulled Ruby off the boy and her eyes fell on a young Jaune Arc.

"I'm so sorry" Ruby said with genuine sadness in her eyes "I'm still getting the hang of my Semblance and no one uses this path since it only goes one place and that's our house so I didn't expect anyone on it since I'm the fastest and" Ruby gulped a breath of air and was about to continue her explanation when Yang dropped a hand to her shoulder which was a signal for her to stop talking or at least that was Ruby thought it meant this time, the reason behind the hand to the shoulder changed daily, sometimes even from minute to minute, it was hard to keep track at times. "Anyways sorry nice to meet you bye!" Ruby activated her Semblance again and vanished towards her house.

Leaving Jaune Arc standing opposite Yang Xiao Long on the dirt path to her family home.

* * *

"You didn't call me back" Yang accused.

"Yeah, it's kinda hard when my phone is being bombarded with call's from my family" Jaune responded hoping Yang wouldn't question that.

"Why is your family attacking your phone" Yang immediately asked, Jaune rolled his eyes at his own bad luck, five days and he already probably had to explain that in the first minute of finding Yang.

"Well, you see I ran away from home to begin training for Beacon four years from now" Jaune deflected off hand, pretending like that's in any way a common thing which to him actually was now that he thought about it for a second.

"You ran away from home? Why would you do that?" Yang almost shouted that only correcting her volume at the last moment.

Jaune's shoulders sagged "Yang what's the last thing you remember before waking up?"

She froze and looked at him "I died" She shuddered after a few days analyzing the memory she shook every time she thought about it.

"Yeah, sorry about that by the way, but I guess now's a good as time as any but Yang Xiao Long welcome to the hell that is my semblance!" Jaune waved his arms in a flourish that looked both silly but with the tone, Jaune held while saying it made it sound ominous.

Yang stood stunned for a second "You don't have a semblance!?"

"No, I'm quite sure I do, it is just a bit difficult for people to believe. Trust me I have tried to explain it before and it typically never goes well for me." Jaune looked tired as he said that and his mouth hardened into a bitter line.

"Okay I think you need to explain this to me, but not here if I don't catch up to Ruby quickly she and Zwei will have the house torn down. Tomorrow during Signal lunch period Ruby eats lunch with her friends and Tai will be in the teacher's Lounge, I just need to ditch my friends and I'll meet you at the main gate." Yang left no room for discussion which Jaune was okay with considering he still needed to deal with his scroll.

* * *

Jaune was sitting under a tree the following day, having found a clean and quiet place to alter his scroll the day before. It was slowly approaching the time when Yang was to meet him and he was mentally going over the everything he could think of as he watched the road leading out of Signal he saw Qrow of all people.

"Not on a mission and actually at work, I can hardly believe that" Jaune watched the Drunk teacher leave the school behind, being careful not to draw his attention in any way.

Qrow turned his head and looked immediately at Jaune, eyes not scanning anything else just boring into Jaune then it was over, eyes back on the path a flask magically appeared in his hand already open and pouring its contents down the man's throat.

Jaune sighed glad when Qrow finished his drink and moved away from him and towards the town just off the School's property most likely to refill his flask.

Jaune was tackled immediately, his reflex's pushed to defend himself and in a quick fluid motion, his attacker was underneath him.

"Whoa, there tall scrawny and one day handsome I'm only thirteen I don't know if I'm ready for this yet." Yang's smiled nearly splitting her face in half already and only growing wider as she noticed Jaune's face go a deep red in response.

" _cough_ "

"S-sorry about that" Jaune stammered.

"Ha, that's alright you have always been kinda jumpy like that"

Jaune knew that was true, Yang only knew Jaune as the last life he led not all the previous ones leading up that point.

"Well, you're here and like I said you're here because of my Semblance so how about I tell you what I know and let's go from there!" Jaune spoke slowly and as Yang nodded listening intently Jaune started with his story or at least as condensed version as he could.

* * *

 **Chapter has finally been properly Beta'd all ten original chapters will be recieving this treatment when my Beta's find the time to help me out.**


	2. Chapter 2

"As I said yesterday this is my semblance, for all intensive purposes I appear to be immortal, but not in the you cannot kill me way, but you kill me I go back in time to my thirteenth birthday and live life through again." Jaune looked up at Yang hoping she followed the dumbed down version of his semblance.

"Okay so you get to live again that's not so bad, you can just change things for the better every time. we can fix what happened in the past life and keep our friends alive" Yang looked excited by the prospect.

"Yang, I have lived again I have changed things thousands of times and the life we just lived, for how awful it might have been for you to experience it wasn't even bad compared to some lives I've lived." Jaune's voice wavered as he spoke, knowing that he needed to be blunt here, not because he didn't hope for a better outcome especially if Yang would be an ally who believed him completely he had no idea how much he could change with the help of just one other fully committed person.

"Uh, how many times have you done this then how-how old are you?"

"Honestly Yang I have no idea to either of your questions I stopped keeping track of my age at my thousandth year and I stopped keeping track of my attempts long before that. The only things I keep track of now are the goals I have which are simple, one to stop Salem's plans and, two to keep my friends alive and so far in every life, I have failed horribly." Jaune's shoulders slumped remembering all the events that he can never seem to change, events that Fate seemed to decide on their own no matter how much he tried to alter them the outcome was always the same every time.

They sat in silence for a few moments, Jaune fighting the ghosts of his memories and Yang trying to process what Jaune was saying.

"You're a cradle robber!" Yang spoke Jaune's head snapped up out of his own thoughts. "WHAT? No, I'm not! What do you mean?"

"You are thousands of years old and you slept with me! WAIT, you probably have slept with everyone at this point you probably have a mental playbook on how to shag everyone you have ever come across." Yang teased Jaune, the poor boy's face had turned so red he didn't even look human at this point.

Jaune felt the temperature drop.

"You slept with my baby sister!" Yang's eyes glinted before she could unleash her anger though Jaune had put a hand on her shoulder and looked her dead in the eyes.

Yang sighed, calming down quickly "OKAY, never mind you would have treated her like a goddess can't be mad at that and at least I know from experience she enjoyed herself." again Jaune's face burned.

"So is there anyone you haven't slept with maybe I could help you get them in the sack" Jaune's face now had so much blood in it that it looks like it might cause him serious harm.

Taking a few deep breaths Jaune calmed down. "Okay, enough of that." Jaune trying to steer the discussion back to his Semblance.

"If you are quite through there are some things I need to explain to you and things we need to do" Jaune spoke in a measured tone and Yang for all her energy became serious and focused on Jaune.

* * *

"First off I have no idea how you came back with me, this has never happened before and I don't know if you or I died the process would repeat itself, so I'm going to be giving you all the information I can to keep us both alive. I tend to be fairly risky with my own life as I just get reset, now I have you here and unsure how my death or yours will be affected I need to play this safer than I have in a very long time." Jaune looked at Yang making sure she understood, a quick nod and he was confident she did.

"Okay, from now until Beacon it is just a training period, you will retain all your knowledge and skills of your past life so when we attend Beacon you will be a great deal stronger than you were in your past life, I have been doing this for a long time so I can give you all the help you might need. I will stay on Patch and train my body here."

"SO, you will be joining Signal then" Yang looking excited by the prospect.

"No, I have tried that in the past. Somehow or another word gets back to my family and I will be shipped back home in a very quick manner, so no I won't be attending Signal." Yang looked disappointed but accepted Jaune's response. "I have trained on Patch before I know where I can get a job so no worries on that part."

"So you're just going to live on Patch earn money and expect Ozpin to just let you in? You are crazy, that will never work you need a plan to get in and-and what's that look for?" as Yang spoke Jaune just adopted an amused smile.

"Yang, you remember two minutes ago when I told you I was thousand's of year old and all that?" Jaune spoke while smiling his eyes shining with a glint of humor that Yang had never actually seen, Jaune always was approachable before at least to her and their friends. Yang now understood that Jaune made himself approachable but doubted anyone had actually gotten a genuinely new response from him in a very long time.

Jaune watched Yang smile, not her normal energetic smile but another one, a smaller but much more affectionate smile, a smile that he only ever saw when Yang in any lifetime had spoken of her little sister Ruby.

"..."

"Okay, well fair point." Yang stretched her back "So you're going to get a job, train up and you obviously know how to get into Beacon on your own. Is there anything I can do for you in the here and now?" Yang didn't expect Jaune to need anything from her but it never hurt to ask.

"Well I have one problem my Aura isn't unlocked." Jaune stated matter of fact.

"Well, that makes two of us then!" Yang replied.

"What do you mean your Aura isn't unlocked, you're attending Signal Academy shouldn't that have been done day one or something?" Jaune was shocked he had always assumed going to a Huntsman Academy meant your Aura was unlocked, or it would be shortly after being accepted. Beacon was different, it was the next step after a school like Signal anyone attending Beacon would be assumed to have their Aura unlocked. "How does Ruby have access to her Semblance without her Aura then?" Jaune was more confused from this one conversation then he had been in a very long time.

"Well you know the story from of how Qrow saved Ruby and myself from a Beowulf when we were younger, well I left out a detail then that was more ashamed of than anything else." A tear formed at the edge of Yang's eye. "Ruby almost died that day, Qrow didn't show up as quickly as I said in the past. When the Beowulf attacked it swiped at me and missed but it connected with the wagon I was pulling Ruby along with she-she hit a tree pretty hard Qrow showed up and dealt with the Beowulf right after that. I was holding my sister cradling her head her eyes were open and she was smiling, can you believe that barely big enough to run around on her own and smiling after being hit by a Beowulf. She was going to die, she-I don't know how bad it really was, the shock and my age don't let me remember the day very well, but Qrow, I have never seen Qrow like that, he was beside himself he took Ruby from me gently and cradled her more tenderly than I have ever seen him be with anyone. I heard Qrow say something I never heard the words. Ruby lived, Qrow and Tai didn't let us out of their sights for months after that but Ruby had her Aura it's what saved her life. Since then I have made it my duty to look after my sister and I would do anything for her!" Yang finished she had not cried at retelling the horrible story, her voice did catch more than once but she had told it and she felt relieved. That someone finally knew the full truth of what happened that day and she felt relieved of a burden in some way.

They sat across from each other in silence for a while, Yang remembering the event again and Jaune was just unsure of what to say. A Bell chimed nearby signaling the end of the lunch break for the students of Signal Academy which was further punctuated with Qrow reappearing on the path to Signal.

"Yang, I have to be careful around Qrow and Tai they have caused me setbacks in the past, for now, contact me on my scroll, I won't be leaving Patch." Yang nodded trusting Jaune's past knowledge, not sure how her father and Uncle caused Jaune problems in some of Jaune's past lives but she trusted Jaune. Yang hopped to her feet in one nimble gesture and made her way back into Signal.

Jaune set about cleaning up his resting spot, he felt Qrow watching him as he walked towards the gate himself. Jaune continued to busy himself for what felt like a painfully long period of time until he felt Qrow's gaze disappear from his back. Jaune always felt tense around the man even though in most all of his lives he came to an understanding with Qrow, even when Jaune worked early on in some of his lives working for Roman and Cinder, he always found ways to discreetly contact the man and feed him information.

* * *

Jaune wiped sweat from his forehead, gods he forgot how hot it was working in a weapons workshop, he had been on Patch for six months now and had found work which didn't just give him Lien, but also doubled as a form of body training. Working in the shop built easy muscle mass and improved his stamina, two bird's with one stone he thought to himself.

Jaune could have found work a myriad of ways, particularly ones which wouldn't require him to sweat half to death on any given day. Jaune had chosen to work as a laborer to allow himself access to the tools and materials he would need to upgrade Crocea Mors and his armor. During his many lives, Jaune had refined what Pyrrha taught him and refined it into his own style, one large adjustment was the altering of the heater shield. Crocea Mors or the blade part of it anyways now resides in a plain leather scabbard, the shield on the other hand modified into a large arm guard, hidden to look just like the rest of the armor he would be wearing, the expanded size of the shield was a bit smaller with the modification and the arm guard was decently heavy but Jaune would like always learn to carry the weight with ease.

Jaune looked over the workstation satisfied with his work, he stored his modified equipment away and began the process of closing up the shop it being many hours after all the other laborers had left for the day and even the owner had left.

"VRRRT" " _click"_ "Hey Jauney" Yangs voice bubbled from through the Scroll.

"Hello Yang, to what do I owe the pleasure of a call from you?" Jaune replied he hadn't spoken much to Yang in the six months he had been here a few passing conversations but every time they spoke he felt energized by her voice.

"Well I have some news for you Tai and Qrow are being called away for a Hunter job, nothing big just a couple of days, I was hoping we could get together and talk about some things!" Yang had tried over the past months to find some time to talk to Jaune, somehow every time they tried to meet Tai or Qrow would appear, oh they never got close or anything but Jaune could not feel comfortable talking with them around, Yang was going to take advantage of their combined absence to have a long talk with Jaune she had thought of some real questions.

* * *

Jaune sat down in the booth, Yang was already here waiting for him he noticed immediately that the cafe they were in was one avoided by the younger people that lived on Patch and more specifically students from Signal. Jaune knew Yang was popular but he was quite shocked how much so, he almost never saw her without three or four people from Signal hanging around her and usually a couple of boys running around trying to impress the Blonde girl and maybe win a date.

"So three days without any parental supervision and you call the oldest person in existence to hang out in an out of the way Cafe, you're such a party animal" Jaune laughed making a bad joke at both their expenses, he had noticed when he approached that Yang seemed concerned and hoped to lighten the mood somewhat.

"Oh ha ha, even if I were actually thirteen like my body indicates I was already tired of things like this at this age last time around and now, now I smile and make pointless chit chat and spend all my time trying to think of things to change." Yang retorted her eyes hardening as she finished speaking.

"Yeah, alright, we have waited enough I guess its time to talk about Beacon and what we need to do." Jaune closed his eyes and rubbed his temples he knew this conversation was coming and now he's going to have to deliver more than a few hard truths to Yang.

"Ok what event or person do you want to talk about first?"

Yang's eyes glinted "Adam"

"Really I-well okay, what do you want to know?" Jaune had not expected Yang's first question would be to ask about Adam Taurus, though in kind of made sense in their last life the better part of the past year of their life had been spent hunting the White Fang extremist.

"Do you know when and what train he and Blake will attack?"

"That I do not know, Adam might have been a monster but he never ranked all the high in terms of enemies in the long run." Jaune sighed, it was true he did not know when or where Adam would be, the first time he knew his location is always the attack on Beacon. "Blake and your encounter with Adam is the first time he will appear, I hope that answers that for you." Jaune wanted to say more, about not focusing on Adam, in the grand scheme of things he is barely a passing interest but he figured that would get the wrong reaction out of Yang.

Yang paused she hadn't thought of that, while she hated Adam she never thought he was unimportant in the scheme of things. "Who else isn't important?" She was curious, Jaune had a great deal of knowledge about what could happen, maybe she thought it was better to ask him a question that is broader in scope than individuals.

"Oh, well everyone is important just, how do I explain this, Okay I will use Adam as an example." Jaune hastily thought of a simpler way to explain this.

"Okay, so say we did confront Adam on the train, we stop him and Blake then and there and potentially we remove the White Fang from the attack on Beacon, sure right off the bat that seems like a huge win but this brings us into conflict with Blake before Beacon, you know how much she trusted people early on, how do you think she would react, yes maybe she's happy with Adam being dealt with maybe not, I don't know when she starts to despise him enough to actively want him dead but I would bet it wouldn't be until after he nearly kills you, Yang. Adam is dealt with, the White Fang in Vale don't participate in Cinder's attack on Beacon. I can tell you from past experience when I made a drastic change like that I paid for it. Salem will not let Cinder fail at least not until she believes that Beacon has fallen and Ozpin is dead." Jaune hoped Yang understood somewhat.

"So we're stuck, I just have to sit back and let all the things we went through happen again? I'm not going to let my friends be hurt and I can't believe you. Jaune are you saying you let all those awful things happen every time and you don't even try to fix them anymore!" Yang felt disgusted with Jaune, had he let her friends die in on Patch just to see what the outcome was? Yang felt sick all of a sudden she stood up from the table and stormed out of the Cafe not letting Jaune reply.

Jaune had no response, he watched Yang leave hoping she would talk to him again. Jaunes mind wandered to his worst life, a life he didn't live, a life that he had given up.

* * *

Yang had walked for a few hours after leaving Jaune, glad that Jaune hadn't followed her, it had given her time to calm down and think. She knew Jaune, she remembered how upset he was when she found him after they burned their friends after Patch had been destroyed by the Grimm. He was beside himself she didn't understand what he had said at the time, it made no sense, now though, now she realized he was talking about a past life condemning himself for letting them die and demanding he do better the next time. She had worried about Jaune for awhile after Patch thinking he might cause himself harm or maybe even kill himself but he never did, he instead focused on me.

"He could have abandoned me, he could have found a way to die and go back and try again but he didn't, he stayed with me he lived for me." Yang paused in her walk. " What a fool he could have escaped the horror and started again and he chose not to, he chose to help me, help my life." Yang sighed, Jaune ever the fool the noble fool who would do or give anything for anyone for his friends.

Yang turned to head back home, Ruby would be worried at this point and she had to consider some ideas that while might be painful for her to stand by and watch, but might need to be done, even so she wasn't entirely confident that she could ignore Adam, the thought of the Faunus made her blood boil and skin crawl, no Adam would die, Yang could ignore some events but Adam was not going to live past their first interaction.

* * *

Ozpin stood in his office staring over Beacon, Vale and in the distance he could even see Signal, behind him stood Qrow Branwen and Tai Xiao Long both men he knew and trusted even if only one of the men truly felt the same in return. Ozpin sighed inwardly. "Qrow, Tai thank you both for coming on such short notice." Ozpin moved around his desk to stand in front of the two men.

"Whats this about Oz? You calling for me is normal but you haven't involved Tai in anything for years even when he offered to help!" Qrow, not one to mince words and more than a little concerned about Tai being called in to handle something, Tai might be a professional hunter and still takes missions as well as his teaching position, but Ozpin's little jobs normally called for a certain level of skill that Qrow knew Tai wasn't up for.

"Nothing like what you're imagining. Tai is here for a different reason than you." with that said Qrow seemed to relax. "Qrow there is a new Fall Maiden, a young woman by the name of Amber I don't know why she was the next chosen after the last maiden past away as far as I have been able to figure out they had no form of relation at all. I have tracked her down and extended a hand of friendship and assistance on behalf of Beacon and Vale she has agreed and I would trust no one but you to escort her safely here I already have a Bullhead waiting on standby for you."

"You got it Oz I'll be back in a couple days. Tai, take it easy and be careful." Qrow looked at Tai, the blond man smiled and nodded his goodbye with that Qrow turned and left the two men alone.

"I don't know what you want from me Ozpin you shut me out for years even when I begged and pleaded to come back and help but you can forget it, I came here expecting some emergency, but no you are just playing your damned games again." Tai stared at Ozpin, eyes locked but lacking any emotion. "If all you're doing is sending Qrow to pick up a new Maiden for training then I have no reason to be here." Tai turned to leave through the same door Qrow took already planning to be back home by evening.

"Your right Tai, I did not have a real reason to ask you to come tonight and Qrow really isn't needed to pick up the new Fall Maiden either, any teacher on staff here could have done that quite easily but not having a reason for needing you here, and wanting you here are two different things." Ozpin watched Tai stop, taking a sip of his coffee that he had been holding the entire time. "Something has happened, Nicholas Arc's only male child has gone missing a young man by the name of Jaune Arc."

"..."

The pause in the room held for a minute but eventually, Tai turned from leaving and looked back at Ozpin. "I know of Nicholas but what does this have to do with me?" Tai knew Ozpin well enough that Ozpin likely knew where the boy was and was likely going to send himself to collect the wayward boy and return him to his family before he got himself killed.

"Well according to Qrow, Nicholas's run away is on Patch as Nicholas informed me of the boy's dream is to be a Huntsman. The thing is though the boy is on Patch he has been for half a year now and he has never once tried to apply to the academy. Qrow has also informed me about some particular behavior from your eldest daughter behavior that according to Qrow seems out of place for the girl." Ozpin finished and took another drink, he himself was still confused about the whole situation on multiple levels.

According to the report from Nicholas, Jaune had left home the night of his thirteenth birthday Nicholas also said that the boy had never traveled alone before and even on family outings they never traveled far, but according to what Qrow had said, and what information he had tracked down Jaune had appeared five days later on Patch. That was a large amount of ground to cover for a thirteen-year-old, even professional Hunters would be hard pressed to cross the distance the boy had in that amount of time, and to top it all off Jaune had found a man that could fly him to Patch no questions asked, it was like the boy knew what he was doing the entire trip, it hadn't been some adventure for the young man but just a simple trip.

On top of everything else with the information about Jaune wanting to be a Huntsman Ozpin had expected the teen to apply for entry into Signal if he had coupled with Nicholas's search for the boy he would have been found out by the staff quickly and shipped home and that might have been the end of it, but that didn't happen Jaune never applied to Signal instead he found work as a weapons shop and that was it, he lived at a makeshift campsite near the town worked his job and trained, he made no effort to get into the academy and didn't bother to interact with anyone except Tai's daughter Yang according to Qrow it was only once and it would have been within the teens first day of being on Patch.

Ozpin related this all to Tai who stood and listened to the story about the young man told by Ozpin and he had honestly no idea what to make of it.

"Does Nicholas know where his son is?" Tai needed a moment to think so started with a safe question.

"Oh yes it took some time to connect the two together but Nicholas knows where his son is and has decided to let the boy do what he wants, for the time being, I believe and think Nicholas does as well that forcing the young man to return home would just lead to him leaving again but being much harder to find, at least this way he knows his son is safe." Ozpin smiled he had always liked Nicholas he was a practical and straightforward man.

"Okay, so Jaune Arc is on Patch he got there in record time that would impress a Huntsman. His Family is content to allow him to stay there in fear of taking him home he would disappear again and not being so easy to find, and to top it off he hasn't even applied or shown any interest in attending Signal at all. According to your reports, he trains his body works his job and try's to limit interacting with anyone with the exception being my oldest daughter." Tai spoke his thoughts out loud hoping it would help him understand better.

"Yes, that is exactly what I just told you." Ozpin looked out his window again looking toward Signal.

"Is this related to any of your old stories and fairy tales, is my daughter in danger?" Tai was concerned he knew of the maidens and before Summers death he worked with Ozpin enough to know he was telling him all this it was for a reason.

"Sadly I do not know Tai, I am well read in a great many fables and fairy tales there are some which bear interest in regards to the young man but without knowing more about the man I can only guess at this point." Ozpin sat down for the first time during their meeting. "I do have a favor to ask of you though, find a way to meet with the young man find out what you can, he traveled to Patch for a reason and your daughter even if they only met once seems to be a part of it."

* * *

 **Properly Beta'd July 24th.  
**


	3. Chapter 3

Jaune hadn't needed to worry about Yang wanting to talk to him before he had settled down for the evening, she appeared to have calmed down and sent his scroll a message wanting to meet again tomorrow and continue their conversation.

Jaune agreed naturally, but after she left today his mind could not shake a memory of a certain lifetime, one that he wished he never lived, normally it didn't cross his mind anymore but her accusing him of standing by and watching terrible things happen stirred the memory up and it was eating away at him like it had never before.

Jaune fought for sleep this night, his mind constantly straying to the horrible memory when sleep finally took him Jaune relived his worst life.

* * *

 _Jaune stood alone,_ Crocea Mors _serving as a cane as it had for many years._

 _Jaune was ancient, even without his semblance of repeating his life over and over again, he leaned on his weapon and stretched his back._

 _Time had not been kind to Jaune. Time hadn't been kind to Remnant either, the world was dead, Salem had won completely, Jaune didn't know Salem's goal but he was confident the witch got what she wanted, a world ruled by Grimm, no humans or Faunus left at least not in the traditional sense._

 _Jaune had seen the abominations in the last few years of this life humanoid Grimm started appearing, normal people transformed into something "wrong"._

 _Jaune moved forward it had taken him months to make it this far, his body fought him every step of the way, his bones ached his breathing was shallow and he knew that his time was coming._

 _I'm going to die of old age' Jaunes mind wandered at the thought he wondered what that would feel like, to drift off peacefully in his sleep._

 _Jaune wouldn't die yet or at least not until he spoke with her._

 _Salem flashed through his mind, he was going to meet her, she knew he was coming that much was certain, she controlled the Grimm, if she didn't want him there he wouldn't make it, so weak was he that a single Beowulf would be all it would take to finish him._

 _Jaune walked into her Citadel the doors were thrown open by some unseen force and closed again after he was inside, his path was clear, no other doors opened so he just walked onwards._

 _Jaune entered a large room. The room had windows that gave a hellish view in every direction in the center of the room was a large rectangular table it had five seats or it did at one point._

 _One chair looked badly fire damaged, another looked like it had been destroyed by a wild animal, the third looked fine but when he approached it he saw it was occupied by the head of a man, rotten and festering the only feature he could make out was a large moustache past that chair there was another, it was more curious than the other three as through the backrest of the chair there was a large splintered hole, the edges of the which looked to be covered in dried blood._

 _Jaune moved past the final chair he knew those seats and with the exception of the last one he passed he knew who would have occupied them. Salem didn't need them anymore so they had been disposed of._

 _Jaune stood beside the last chair an evil looking thing, it wasn't occupied and he wasn't about to sit in it himself no matter how tired he was._

 _"Please sit" a voice came from the entrance he had come through not long ago._

 _Jaune turned and saw Salem his eyes burned with hatred, but he could do nothing with his anger so he calmed himself trying to save energy._

 _"Come now I so rarely get any visitors, you actually will be my last, whoever you are, you are the last one left." Salem smiled the one of absolute victory, she had won and he knew it her last enemy was a decrepit old man unable to stand without support._

 _The news didn't shock Jaune he had assumed that a long time ago._

 _"Are you so old you can no longer speak? Come now you did not come all this way just to stare." Salem spoke the words but she was content to let him take all the time he needed._

 _Jaune fell to the ground,_ Crocea Mors _could not support the weight of his legs failing him completely. He watched as figures appeared behind Salem people he never met in this lifetime but people he knew none the less._

 _The appearance surprised him and his heart thumped painfully at the twisted visages that that stood behind Salem.  
_

 _His team and friends, RWBY and JNPR stood before him young and alive but not alive._

 _They were abominations, Jaune knew that while they looked like the people he knew they were wrong. Human and Grimm flesh melded together, just looking at them Jaune's breath started to come out in shallow quick gasps._

 _' I have never met them though, how did she know to call them.'  
_

 _Jaune was about to die he couldn't even ask Salem what he came here to ask, his voice wasn't working his heart was beating through his chest irregular and painful._

 _Jaune fought to say something, anything, his mind raced as his body died, he needed Salem. Her powers now were unfathomable, she had the relic's and who knew what else, she had pulled memories from his mind of people he never met in this life and created twisted puppets in their images. If she had the power to do that then maybe she had the power to end everything.  
_

 _Salem moved forward, she stood before Jaune, his friend's moved with her, encircling him.  
_

 _Jaunes lips moved a trickle of noise escaped his lips not enough for Salem to hear anything, furious he tried again._

 _"Stop me..." Jaune bled out a shallow breath he had made himself heard the two words would make no sense he needed to try again, make her understand he wanted to die a permanent death he wanted it to be over he didn't want to do this anymore._

 _Salem knelt down beside him, she even grasped one of his shaking hands giving it a mocking squeeze. "Shhh, don't worry it will stop soon enough."_

 _'No, you bitch you don't understand'  
_

 _It was too late Jaune couldn't say anything else his last few gasps of life rattled through his body he felt his Semblance activate and he woke up alive and well on his thirteenth birthday and he had cried, the frustration he felt caused him to do something drastic._

* * *

Jaune woke up that morning remembering the dream vividly, he also remembered what happened next, he had killed himself hundreds of times for how long he could not remember he tried to overwhelm his Semblance, hundreds upon hundreds of times he took Crocea Mors to his own chest.

Jaune hated that memory, it had taken him a very long time after that to begin to even try to stop Salem again.

Jaune liked to think he made up for that, how many times he tried and failed he knew that he would never let that happen again, once the grief had left his body he vowed to never be that weak again no matter what, as long as even one of his friends was alive he would devote everything he had to a life and making the world better.

Yang was living proof of that vow, he knew his last life was pointless after Patch but Yang lived, and he had lived and fought on for her, he still had no idea how she was back with him and he could not trust the effect to be repeatable so he was going to make the most of this, he was going to use every piece of knowledge he had, every scrap he could remember and he was going to win this time.

Pulling a journal out of one of his bags Jaune looked over some of his writing. Everything inside is written is a style of shorthand that would make little to no sense to anyone reading it unless they knew what the author of the book did. Jaune looked over several pages that he had wrote the night before and found them after a night's rest satisfactory, he smiled and closed the book. He had long ago stopped physically recording events, it was easy to give up since he lost any notes he made upon his death anyways, now instead he relied on his mental memory of how events played out. He wasn't sure why he chose to take up writing his memories all of a sudden, he felt the need to so he wrote about events that he had issues with being able to really affect the outcome of.

Jaune closed his eyes and thought back to his days at beacon trying to alter apparently predestined events. Sometimes it was so simple, things would be changed drastically sometimes just with himself choosing to talk with one person over another. Initiation always crosses his mind when he thinks of simple changes, If Jaune ignores Weiss and Pyrrha the morning of initiation then the two of them would end up being partners. Alternatively if Jaune spoke with either of them separately in the instance of speaking with Pyrrha she would become my partner though if I spoke with Weiss she would not end up with anyone from Team RWBY or JNPR, she would actually struggle to fit in at Beacon and not succeed and by the end of the first semester she would transfer to Atlas. Lives, where Weiss didn't find a home at Beacon, were some of Jaune's worst Weiss is miserable up in Atlas, Blake disappears after the dock event with Roman Torchwick, Team RWBY wouldn't head to Mountain Glen, Cinders attack on Beacon doesn't end with just the school being lost but Vale is destroyed the loss of life from the attack was horrific.

Jaune rubbed his forehead thinking of all that could go wrong with initiation alone was daunting to his mind. Jaune went through it almost mechanically at this point he hadn't tried to alter the Team's in a very long time things were easier if he just let that day play out.

It was time to begin his day. Jaune left his tent and began to make his breakfast the same meal he had been eating for months now at this point. Oatmeal, Jaune grimaced eating quickly and getting dressed. Jaune hefted the one bag that held his important items and headed into town he wasn't working today and he had promised to meet Yang again to continue their conversation and he didn't want to be late.

* * *

Taiyang Xiao Long didn't like what he was doing. He had spent his night after leaving Ozpin's office and traveling back to Patch as quickly as he could. He had spent the night watching the young man's campsite and he had to compliment him on his choice of location. Open terrain in every direction by at least thirty yards, and his campsite sat on a small bump in the terrain no more than maybe a foot in elevation. It allowed the young man to have a clear line of sight in every direction. On top of that Tai was sure the young man must have done it on purpose but surrounding his campsite hidden among the grass all over the place were brittle sticks that would make a loud noise when stepped on.

"He's paranoid about something that's for sure." Tai stood from his hiding spot stretching his stiff joints.

What am I going to do, I can't rummage through this site, the kids smart enough, he will know someone went through it. Also, I bet anything left here all day has no real value to him. This is a waste of time anything important to the kid is going to in the backpack he took with him. Tai stood there thinking, unable to think of any real plan he decided to shadow the boy for a couple days, his daughters wouldn't expect him home for two more days anyways.

Tai headed for the town, he hoped not to run across his daughters but if he did he could simply tell them that Ozpin's just wanted to talk with him, and that was the truth at least a part of it, the other part is Ozpin wanted someone to spy on a Thirteen-year-old boy. Tai, as he entered the town, thought this would be the stupidest job he had ever been assigned if not for the fact that it was apparent the young man in question was paranoid about something.

Jaune was gone, Tai had only waited a couple moments before following him into the town proper and in that short amount of time the young man had vanished. Tai had even asked some of the people who were on the street if they had seen the young man pass by and none of them had. Tai stood in the street, had the young man knew he was watching him and if so how long had he known? Tai had no idea what to think, is the boy so paranoid that he vanishes on purpose every morning in case someone is watching him? No, he works at a weapon shop anyone would know where he goes so he did this today on purpose. The question was did he do it because he knew he was being watched or did he do it because he was about to do something he wanted to keep secret and he was just being paranoid and taking precautions.

"Damn kid" Tai swore quietly. Tai took off down the street towards Signal, his mind assuming the worst and Tai wanted to be somewhere with a commanding view of the area and also a direct link to connect with Ozpin at Beacon.

* * *

Jaune entered the Cafe checking the time on his Scroll, he was late, not by much but after he realized he was being watched Jaune had decided to discover who was watching him. It had only taken a moment to avoid the normal people of Patch and hide nearby to watch his campsite and path he used to enter the town proper.

Jaune had been surprised when it was Taiyang who appeared. When Jaune had stayed on Patch in previous lives Tai had never spied on him, the man was pleasantly direct in his dealings with Jaune every other time. "Why are you spying on me this time..." Jaune let the thought escape his mind. He understood enough about little variations causing massive changes, Jaune assumed this was less because of himself and more because of Yang, she spends a great deal of time around her father so it was likely that she might have said something that made the man curious about himself.

"Guess who I found spying on me this morning Yang?" Jaune opened with the question before he even sat down.

"Oh god, is Ruby stalking you she said she was going out to test her speed again this morning." Yang's voice showed both concern and frustration. She loved her sister but this repeated life was causing her a fair amount of stress when dealing with her sister.

"What? No, I don't think I have seen Ruby unless she come's into the shop asking for parts for her weapon. Taiyang was watching my campsite this morning." Jaune pulled out his scroll and showed Yang the picture he had taken of the man.

"Why though, he shouldn't even be here he should be gone with Qrow on a job for the next couple days." Yang was confused that much was obvious.

"It's not important at least not at this moment, it could be any number of reasons why he is here watching me. Honestly, with you living with him I'm surprised he isn't watching you day and night, you can't tell me that you haven't had a slip-up or two in your time here?"

"You're not wrong, between him and Qrow I feel like I'm being interrogated nightly, I have second guessed so many responses thought would have been natural. I'm just happy Ruby seems oblivious to any differences I seem to exhibit."

"Well that probably explains why Tai is interested in me you might have said something and didn't realize it, no real harm was done." Jaune wasn't any closer to figuring out why Tai was acting out of character but like many things Jaune knew the answer would eventually be learned so he put it out of his mind for the time being.

"First thing though Yang if you're going to apologize let me say it is not necessary, I have had many lives where my choices or lack thereof caused suffering, I try with every life to improve, to make it better and I will not abandon anyone if I can save them." Jaune visibly shook with emotion between the dream from the night before and his statement to Yang just now his body seemed charged with energy coming from his emotions.

Yang listened and watched Jaune she didn't know what to say, unsure because the Jaune she knew kept his emotions in check and this was unusual. Instead, she chose to just nod and accept Jaunes explanation.

The morning moved steadily towards afternoon and they talked about multiple events. Yang would ask questions that Jaune would attempt to answer for the most part what Yang learned was that once an event happened even the most simple of interaction can lead to a massive shift in what would be the normal outcome.

"So even with your future knowledge and countless lives something simple like who we talk to our first day at Beacon could be the most important decision we ever make?" Yang's head hurt but after so many hours of hypothetical discussion, she would have been surprised if it didn't.

"To sum everything up, in short, yes, a decision as simple as who you interact with can have untold consequences." Jaune sighed, he had talked through this all morning and finally felt like Yang truly understood now.

"..."

The silence between the two was deafening, Yang's mind lost in the concern that she might inadvertently ruin this life by being careless, the thought weighed heavily on her mind. Jaune's mind kept thinking of an event that happened every time, an event that seemed to happen regardless of how much he fought to change it or alter the outcome.

"Yang, there is one event I could never alter. Pyrrha's is always approached by Ozpin to become the Fall Maiden. I have tried countless times to alter this event but I have never succeeded. The worst thing is that Amber is poisoned, putting the remainder of the maidens power that resides in her in anyone but Cinder causes the poison to just move to the new host with the Power. Dealing with Cinder early changes nothing, the power returns to Amber but she won't recover and Ozpin will still choose Pyrrha and she will still die." Jaune stopped trying to think of how to explain this. "I want you to be better Yang, I want you to be the best I want you to be the one Ozpin will choose, If it's you we can make plans to to alter something together that I have never been able too."

Yang was stunned, she knew Jaune didn't want for her to take Pyrrha's place and die but Yang knew Pyrrha, even the thought of her made Yang pale slightly. Pyrrha was a prodigy, they had sparred many times at Beacon and Yang learned early on that while she might be stronger than most of her classmates, whenever she fought with Pyrrha, Yang was always outmatched. That knowledge became more apparent as time went on and Yang still did one on one spars with other students and Ms. Goodwitch had to field entire teams to even challenge Pyrrha.

"I can help you train, I have more than a few years of experience under my belt and frankly Pyrrha was my first teacher she taught me every move she knew and how to beat her." Jaune carried on he gauged the reaction or lack thereof from Yang that she was unsure if she could be better than Pyrrha.

"I'll do it. Even if it wasn't to save all of our friends I would agree to this solely on the reason to say I Yang Xiao Long beat Pyrrha Nikos." Yang smiled fiercely at the thought of that. "So train me, give me every tip and trick I could need to be better than her, and I will make you proud."

"Alright, well I can start training you as soon as I can find a safe place to do that. Aside from the training have you thought at all about Ember Celica yet, any adjustment you want to add to it?" Jaune asked thinking back to Yangs weapon. Ember Celica had remained unchanged in the entire time Jaune had known Yang even in the times she would lose an arm her weapon remained unchanged her weapon just being built into her robotic limb.

"Whats wrong with Ember Celica? She never let me down in the past!" Yang spoke defensively she wasn't as possessive of Ember Celica as Ruby was over Crescent Rose but the weapon had been a constant companion through her life and she felt the need to defend it.

"There is nothing wrong with it I just think it could use an upgrade." Jaune already had a plan in mind of how he would like to see Ember Celica improved but in the end, it was Yang's weapon so without her agreement, he wouldn't and couldn't make or suggest the modification.

Yang was curious wondering what Jaune might have envisioned for her weapon, he would have lots of experience alongside her in his many lives. "You know what sure, I still haven't completed my weapon so making an adjustment will be easy. What did you have in mind?"

Jaune smiled and began to explain the alterations.

* * *

Tai was upset, he had lost the young man for an entire morning and then shortly after lunch Jaune had appeared outside the entrance to Signal Academy. After that and for the next couple days it felt like Jaune was actively making Taiyang aware of his presence. Tai had even taken to trying to avoid the young man and it still seemed like he was everywhere all of a sudden, Tai couldn't be away from him anywhere. The following two days when he was supposed to be away from Patch were almost torturous, Tai had given up and had hidden himself away in his office at Signal.

It was almost time to head home, this was the day he had told his daughters he would be back. Tai stretched his muscles and prepared to head home but first, he needed to call Ozpin. He was not looking forward to this call but he hit the send button and Ozpin picked up immediately.

"Taiyang, how goes your investigation?" Tai could hear the insufferable sip that Ozpin would have taken from his coffee cup.

"My investigation never started. I don't know how but this Jaune figured out I was watching him. He vanished for the entire first morning I had been back on Patch, and after the morning was over he made sure I knew where he was at all points of the day." Taiyang didn't look out the window behind him he knew that Jaune was there sitting under the same tree.

"Interesting, has anyone approached the young man over the two days where he was making you aware of his presence or has been alone the entire time?" Ozpin was fascinated with the young man. He crossed a large distance on foot through Grimm territory at a speed that would impress veteran hunters, and now no discredit to Taiyang, Jaune had discovered somehow he was being watched and managed to both evade his pursuer who was a professional hunter but also had managed to corner his pursuer in a sense as well.

"He has been alone, but Ozpin you should have seen what he did this morning." Tai stopped thinking about what he saw this morning. "I don't know what training this kid has received, but if Nicholas never trained him someone taught him something I watched his morning exercises today and he puts to shame not just the students here at Signal but I doubt I could handle his regime without the help on my Aura." Taiyang felt sore just by thinking of the workout the young man put himself through. "He was exhausted but he only took a laughably short break before I knew it he was up again and practicing weapons drills with his sword."

"Taiyang, could you do me a favor? I would like you to be direct and talk with the young man and possibly find out who trained him and what his goals are."

Tai smiled, Ozpin had basically given him permission to be himself. "Yeah, I can do that, I'll fill you in when I know more." Tai ended the call and was out the door before Ozpin had time to respond. Tai reached the front gate in a matter of moments and strode purposefully towards Jaune.

* * *

 **Properly Beta'd July 30th**


	4. Chapter 4

**Training Day's**

* * *

Jaune felt the man approach, he turned around and watched as Taiyang Xiao Long walked across the grass towards him. Even after two days, Jaune wasn't confident he could handle this conversation. If Taiyang was going to force him home it would only be a minor setback to Jaune but to Yang, it could be all the difference she would need to be able to surpass Pyrrha. Jaune kept his face impassive and chose to wait for the man to speak first hoping Tai might give away something that Jaune could use to his advantage in the conversation.

"Jaune Arc, I am Taiyang Xiao Long." Tai extended his arm to greet the young man who also extended his arm and they shook hands, Tai noted that Jaune had been quick to break the handshake.

"Uh, hello sir, um, how do you know who I am?" Jaune slipped into his old persona with practiced ease.

Tai was taken aback by the young man, he expected him to be confident and sure of himself but his initial reaction after hearing him speak Jaune gave off the impression of being intimidated and unsure of himself. "Ah - um, right." Taiyang snapped his attention back to focus. "I recently received a report about you. Nicholas Arc, your father," Taiyang made sure to keep a close watch oh Jaune as he spoke, he knew from experience runaways rarely wanted to return home and often when confronted with the possibility would try to escape that fate. "has filed a missing person report about you!" Taiyang was suspicious, Jaune didn't react normally to that, he expected Jaune to appear panicked or even resigned assuming this conversation would be to force him home, instead Jaune looked bored.

"Oh, right that. Mr. Xaio Long, I love my family but I want to be a huntsman sir. My father refuses to listen to me and I am set on doing this if you send me back I will only leave again."

Taiyang felt confident that Jaune would be true to his word that if he was sent home he would just leave again. He has already proven very capable to Taiyang. "Don't worry Jaune no one will be sending you home." Taiyang saw hope in the Jaune eyes. "Your father, Nicholas, has a similar idea in mind, sending you home would just cause you to leave again. While it seems your family might not be on board with your decision to become a Huntsman your little journey to Patch has shown them how serious you are." Taiyang watched as Jaune's expression transformed to a look of relief mixed with a great deal of confusion.

"What...what does that mean sir?"

"Well, it means I guess that you're free to apply to Signal, I saw you practicing this morning with dedication like that as long as you apply yourself you should easily be able to catch up with the students your age." Tai smiled, Jaune appeared overcome with confusion it seemed like the boy didn't know what to do with himself. "Here, come with me I will get you the proper papers and help you file everything." This wasn't the way Taiyang had intended this conversation to go but after seeing the boys confusion and then hope after realizing he wasn't about to be shipped home. If Jaune wanted to become a huntsman and his family maybe not thrilled with the idea but at least choosing to not stand in his way any longer Tai felt he should help him. He was still concerned, Jaune had managed to elude him a couple days ago and there was the other information he had heard from Ozpin. _Well, if he's attending Signal I might be able to find out more and at the very least it will be a good way to keep track of him without actually have to stalk him._

Taiyang followed by a dazed looking Jaune entered into the school and Tai quickly began pulling out the proper paperwork to admit a new student. It wasn't anything special for Schools like Signal it was fairly common to have new students enrolling all throughout the year. Though with the regime the students go through many aspiring hunters will choose to seek other professions when they learn the work involved in becoming a Huntsman its one of the primary reasons why your Aura isn't immediately unlocked once you're admitted.

In short order all the necessary forms were signed and filed away, Taiyang handed Jaune his Student ID card and gave him a quick run down on when lessons started for the day which introductory classes he would have to take and how he would have to take several aptitude tests to find out what sort of skill and knowledge levels Jaune possessed. Taiyang, once the last bit of necessary information was passed along excused himself, he was late returning home and his daughters might start to worry soon.

* * *

Jaune waved stupidly as Taiyang left him alone.

 _What just happened, how... I... What...?_ Jaune shook his head he didn't know what minute changed caused this and thinking about it was only causing himself a headache. Jaune sat down by the tree he had spent his day and stared at his Signal ID card.

 _Okay, what do I know, well my family knows I'm on Patch, that's good. They also apparently don't want me home and that is good... I think!? I'm a Student at Signal Academy... that's not good... or maybe it isn't. Okay, what are the downsides of attending Signal? Well, the obvious one would have been Qrow and Taiyang though now Taiyang personally enrolled me... this just has Ozpin written all over it which is a really bad thing._

 _Enough, the maybe goods and bads I cannot reliably answer are not worth my time to dwell on. I still cannot trust Taiyang, he is acting differently than my past interactions with him but everything he has done today can easily be explained by Ozpin interfering._

 _Though even with all the potential bad parts of this there are plenty of upsides, for starters an easy method of both having my aura unlocked and a legitimate path to attend Beacon without the risk of a forged application being discovered both those made for huge positives. Above and beyond those two huge positives I would have access to facilities that I can use to train myself but also this would give me a public reason to approach and befriend Yang so that our meetings would not need to be some clandestine affair that we needed to keep secret.  
_

Jaune took one more look at his ID card. Standing Jaune left the tree he was sitting under and headed to his camp site figuring he should get some rest best to be prepared for whatever tests Signal would through at him.

* * *

Yang hit the floor the throw she had been on the receiving end of was padded with the last remnants of Aura she had in reserve. A bell sounded to signal the end of her spar, she had lost though that wasn't surprising. She rolled over and stood up, she didn't need to bother checking the large screen on the side of the arena which would show both hers and her opponents remaining Aura. Mine was depleted and her opponents bar would barely register an amount missing.

It had only been a recent thing in the past month that her Aura had been unlocked. She was the first among her classmates to have it unlocked and she remembered from her other life this was earlier than before. She didn't remember the exact date from her other life but she knew she wasn't first and she had been older, only a couple months but still this felt to herself at least like a massive achievement.

It had been over a year since she had restarted her life, six months since Jaune had joined her as a student at Signal and a little over a month since her father had unlocked her Aura and her real training began.

Yang thought in horror of the daily routine Jaune put himself through every third day. He was insane, Yang was certain of that but then she felt she must be as well because she had taken up the same routine and kept to it just like Jaune although the day after one of his workouts Yang would curse the very thought of him as her body rebelled against even the most basic and simple of movements.

"Good job Yang." Tai praised his daughter. "You have improved a lot, your technique has come a long way and your handling of your Aura is masterful." Tai doted on Yang, he was so happy she was doing so well, he would never stand in the way of his children's dreams and since both had chosen to follow in their parent's footsteps and become hunters he was happy to see that Yang would be prepared to handle it.

Jaune had watched the spar between Yang and Tai from among the other student and he hid a grin, Yang had lost on purpose but she also made it convincing there were multiple times during the spar that Jaune had seen Yang bleed all the power out of one of her strikes or subtly alter the course of her weapons to make for near misses that Tai would not realize how strong his daughter was.

The bell that sounded didn't just signal the end of the spar it also closed the final class for the day only. Jaune had recently had his Aura unlocked as well his spar earlier on the class against another student had ended in a draw, Jaune was hoping albeit unlikely that if he appeared more mediocre that Ozpin would lose interest, Jaune doubted it though, Ozpin wouldn't forget he would just mentally file away the information and would pull it out later.

Still, Jaune felt great mental worry of Ozpin watching his every move through Taiyang's reports was ever present but Jaune was only willing to hamper himself so much. He would train harder than everyone but he would also attempt to make himself look like a rank amateur at fighting which coincidentally was what he was supposed to be.

Jaune walked down to the stage and handed Yang her jacket, he shrugged off more that few dirty looks from the male teens who hoped at one point to have a chance with Yang, at the same time Jaune avoided the flirtatious looks he received from the female students, apparently being close to Yang who didn't give the time of day to any boy her age yet spent a great deal of time in his company had made him popular somehow with the female students who now thought of him as someone special and desirable.

Yang accepted the jacket but left it off after that spar she was already quite warm and not to mention sweaty and didn't want to dirty the coat.

"So, how did I do this time?" Yang asked keeping her voice barely audible. Together they had decided that Yang would trounce the other students, with her extra years she was easily handling the other students when Tai took over her training personally. Realizing that the normal students had no chance either Jaune or Yang were expecting or at least prepared for it. Yang had been quite clever though in their first spar she had repeatedly caught her father off guard not with fancy moves or stylish attack's but with her agility. It was something the old Yang never relied on, her Semblance was fed off the damage she took so while she did evade some attacks in the past she was always more than happy to take a heavy blow and repay the favor. She would have won her first spar with her father but she took a dive at the last minute allowed Taiyang to land a few solid blows and deplete her Aura. It had paid off though she was exempt from the normal physical training and practice the other aspiring brawler style hunters had to go through and she could train on her own in one of the many empty classrooms.

"Well you might want to start landing a hit or two pretend to show some improvement. Taiyang barely looked like he was exerting himself this time if you keep going that easy you might lose your free training period's and be put back in with the other students." Jaune could have been more critical but knew that would not be productive. Feeling the stares from around the room grow more intense as the two of them were standing in the middle of the room and quietly whispering to each other Jaune took a couple steps back and waved a hand in front of his face in a gesture indicative of a foul smell.

Yang caught the gesture and understood what it meant. "How dare you!" Yang lashed out with a punch which connected firmly with Jaunes stomach the blow sent Jaune off the stage and he landed among the bleachers Yang knew Jaune had fought today and his Aura would be low but his control of it was unmatchable so she had been a bit generous with her strength. She didn't understand exactly why Jaune insisted that their relationship was like this, they were friends but he had made a point to Yang that they were to only seem like good friends nothing more. Jaune was a naive idiot he could see through most people and situations quite easily but what he was forcing Yang to do was only giving people the opposite impression of their relationship. He wanted to appear as only friends and that's all they were but from the outside looking in Yang was positive that all their classmates saw them as a couple, and she knew Ruby saw them as a couple which by that extension her father and uncle both saw it that way in a sense too. _I should be upset, I think, but really this couldn't have worked out better it gives me an easy excuse to spend more time with him and helps me avoid all the unwanted attention that I couldn't escape the first time I was at Signal._

* * *

Taiyang watched his daughter storm from the room upset with Jaune, thinking of the young man he shifted his eyes to the man, he was extracting himself from the bleachers a couple students Tai would consider the young man's friends helped him to his feet while laughing at the boy's expense. Tai had kept an eye on Jaune over the months sending Ozpin reports, though honestly, the reports felt like a waste of time. After six months Tai had found nothing out about Jaune aside from being overly extreme in his training regime, and his unusual behavior the first days they had interacted. Taiyang could find nothing wrong with him, well at least until how close he seemed to be with Yang. Tai was a little concerned but trusted Yang, also Jaune seemed hopeless near every time Tai thought there was something going on between the two he would be almost instantly corrected by Jaune doing or saying something that would cause Yang to not speak with him and avoid him for days or more commonly he would watch the poor man be on the receiving end of one of Yang's punches.

Tai knew what those felt like he still remembered his first spar with his daughter. _H_ _ow close had she come to beating me, far closer than it should have been that's for sure._ Tai had taken several solid blows before he knew what was going on, he hadn't expected her to be so fast but then again she had to keep up with Ruby and that showed with how fast Yang was. She wasn't just fast either he wasn't sure where she learned some of the moves she employed, he had assumed Qrow but after questioning his brother in law Qrow had made the simple point that he wasn't that style of fighter and Tai had to agree, Qrow wasn't helpless in a fist fight but what Yang was showing off was well beyond what her Uncle could have taught her. When it came down to it Taiyang had no explanation, Yang was leagues ahead in strength and skill so much so that he wasn't sure how Professor Port had heard but now the man was petitioning to have Yang entered into Junior Tournaments something about have a Vale representative that could beat some, as Port had put it "Red-headed upstart from Mistral."

Taiyang shook his head, he had initially been against the idea but as Port had rallied supporters that man could be frighteningly charismatic when the right topic crossed his path. In the end, Tai had relented he had told the Port that he would pass along the opportunity to Yang but if she turned it down that would be the end of it. Tai had made a point to emphasize that point and Port had both agreed and backed down.

The day was coming to an end and Tai had no paperwork to speak of so he chose to head home early. As luck would have it Yang wasn't surrounded by her normal entourage of friends and was instead walking him with her sister. "Mind if I join you?"

"Well we are heading the same way, you might as well walk with us if we follow you we look like stalkers and if you follow us you might be mistaken for some kind of pervert!" Yang smiled wryly.

"YANGGGG! Leave Dad alone." Ruby said stepping to her father's defense.

"Hah, anyone who knows you would pity the perverted stalker especially if they saw how you handled your friends." Tai followed up alluding the punch she had just paid Jaune.

"Wait is Yang beating up Jaune again?" Ruby started to kick at Yang. "You leave him alone, I like him, he treats me nice and not just because I'm your sister but nice - nice like a friend."

"Ouch, Ruby stop-hey quit it." Yang managed to get on the other side of her father and Tai then proceeded to stop the small fight not wanting to be on the receiving end of Ruby's kicks either.

"Oh, your sister wasn't beating him up. Jaune just made a comment I imagine on how your sister smelt after her spar and she just responded with a 'gentle punch', nothing serious the young man laughed it off I assure you." That seemed to settle Ruby down or at least end the disagreement for the moment.

Tai sighed inwardly.

"Yang, some people at Beacon have heard of your skill development and have made to have me ask you if you would be interested in an opportunity? There are a number of organized tournaments and they are wondering if you would be interested in being a representative of Vale?" Tai spoke matter of factly not wanting to mince words.

"You mean fighting Tournaments between other hunters and huntresses?" Ruby radiated excitement. "Yang, say yes you have to say yes if you don't say yes then you're not really my sister." Ruby speech began to become incoherently fast as she started to get swept up in the idea of her sister fighting people from all around Remnant.

Yang was prepared for this, Jaune had given her plenty of warning that she would be confronted with this. Jaune had been discreetly leaking information about her to Professor Port at Beacon. They both knew that armed with the knowledge of her skill, and gentle push in the direction they wanted Port would be an easy person to manipulate to get the ball rolling, and true to Ports behaviour it took no effort past the initial few leaked video files and a few not so subtle prods towards the amateur tournaments.

"These would be what small local tournaments to promote Signal?" Yang had opted to play ignorant, Jaune had even agreed they had decided to her being too driven to enter this sort of event might lead to problems in the future when Ozpin would select the new Fall Maiden but she also couldn't appear reluctant as that might also have an undesired effect.

"Well, I guess they could be considered small compared to some other events..." Tai trailed off the sentence trying to think of a way to phrase what he wanted to say, but his mind would not aid him. "Alright, they are not small events, your skill and strength have been discovered by a member of the Beacon staff a Professor by the name of Peter Port. He wants you to enter a couple competitions see how you perform."

"Would this affect my training here in Signal? I would still be able to attend Beacon in two years right?"

"No no it wouldn't affect your training and honestly this might be the only place you could find opponents your own age." That was the truth Yang didn't have a single opponent at Signal that could give her a challenge.

"Okay, I'll do it, tell this Port guy that as long as it doesn't affect my time here at Signal or my application to Beacon that I will enter these competitions!"

Taiyang sighed he was happy that Yang valued her education enough to say that and hoped that if she became a champion the fame wouldn't go to her head.

Ruby danced around her sister excitedly, the rest of their walk home was enjoyed with conversations of what sort of training Yang should do for a competitive fighter, Ruby suggested a healthy diet of cookies which she volunteered to taste test to make sure they were the best quality for her sister.

* * *

Jaune had received the scroll message with the good news shortly after he had reached his camp site. He had been offered a room in the Signal dormitory but had opted to continue living off the school grounds mainly for the sake of privacy. He had made the right choice as his friendship with Yang had earned him all kinds of attention, both good and bad. Boys interested in Yang tried to bully and scare Jaune off which was usually met with Jaune intimidating the boy in question back. Jaune never hurt any of them but he made it clear that he wasn't going to be bullied. Girls, on the other hand, Jaune could not understand at least not completely it had taken him far too long to realize how apparently popular he was with them, apparently his close relationship with Yang who was notorious for turning away guy friends yet accepted Jaune so easily made the girls think Jaune was special somehow.

Jaune groaned as he approached his campsite, he had only moved to this location less than a week ago and already someone had found it. A gift sat in the middle of his small camp site. Jaune ignored it. He set to work immediately, it took him a little under fifteen minutes to collapse and pack up his campsite, he had already planned out his next site once this one was found. Jaune took one look at the small bag sitting in the middle of the packed up camp sight he was curious what was inside but if he took it whoever left it there would know and Jaune didn't want that attention. He had made a few select friends in Signal mostly so that he didn't seem like a loner and he would make a point that if they invited him out he would always be polite and go along. It was all to keep up appearances, the more normal Jaune looked he hoped the less Taiyang and above him, Ozpin would pay attention to him.

Jaune was a practiced Veteran at being average or really below average how many lives had he lived before even managed to develop a landing strategy that didn't involve Pyrrha saving his life? Jaune hoped this was paying off but he had no way to knowing. Instead, he just kept his head low and when Yang found time she would approach him for his more advanced training.

Thirty minutes later after a jogging run Jaune reached his new Camp site with the same practiced ease he took apart the site it was set up again and he had a fire going and his supper was cooking away. Jaune sent a quick message to Yang informing her that he had moved again. He knew she would make fun of him for fleeing from a girl but Jaune didn't care he wasn't interested in anything like that.

Jaune kept himself busy making notes about upcoming amateur tournaments in the future. Who was confirmed to be attending, rumors about possible unannounced additions and watching video's looking for Semblances of other fighters. Jaune had already made extensive notes about some of the more prominent fighters he could find some of them having truly frightening Semblances. It honestly felt like after doing all this research that if you didn't have a direct combat-related Semblance you have no hopes of being a champion.

Jaune closed this Scroll and tucked away the book he was recording notes in. Jaune considered calling his family, after he had been in Signal for a few weeks his Father had come alone to visit him it had been an awkward conversation but in the end they had parted ways amicably and Jaune had even started to call home infrequently, his family was split some wanted him to return home and others wished him well though Jaune knew from past experience how to handle returning to his family he would do it in every life before heading to Beacon he would return home for a short time he would explain his reasons for what he did and things would sort itself out this time wasn't much different it just involved a couple extra calls.

He finished up his routine and prepared to sleep for the night, it was only in the final moments as Jaune was about to drift off to sleep that Jaune sensed how unnaturally quiet his surroundings had become. Quietly and deftly Jaune grabbed up Crocea Mors and then slipped on his arm guard that concealed his shield. Holding his weapon Jaune spent time listening, there were five people surrounding his camp site and the reason it was so quiet is they were making such an unnatural amount of noise that all the normal night animal noises were driven from the area. Jaune was embarrassed with himself after listening for a short time he realized this was just a posse of students from Signal judging from the little bit of talking that he heard Jaune even knew them.

Jaune strode angrily from his tent. "What the hell are you idiots doing!?" All five of the boys outside visibly flinched. Jaune looked them over making note that two of them stood farther back than the others and appeared very nervous. "I swear to some unspeakable force that if this is about Yang again I'm going to seriously reconsider my stance about not beating you within an inch of your lives!" Jaune knew how to intimidate people and five teenagers two of which looked to be nervous wrecks made this almost too easy. Jaune postured forward to the bravest looking teen and if Jaune was correct was the leader of this little posse. No one in the group seemed inclined to speak though.

"I told you before that Yang and I are friends! Nothing more nothing less! What did you idiots hope to achieve coming out here, did you think that you were going to intimidate me into avoiding her? I would like to see you try!" Jaune goaded them into a fight, he knew that even if he had intimidated them into leaving what they were doing her now would happen again once their boss found his spine again.

"Fine we were just gonna scare you a bit but if you think you're so tough we will oblige you." The lead boy said before drawing what appeared to be a pair of knuckle protectors and lunged at Jaune.

Jaune easily sidestepped the lunge before lashing out with his leg catching the Teen in the back of his knee and sending him sprawling into the dirt. Jaune quickly blocked an attack from a bat type weapon with his arm guard and twisted his body to avoid a swing from as second identical weapon the other teen attacked with. Jaune made one quick look around, the two nervous teens had fled not wanting to be there in the first place and apparently definitely not interested in fighting.

Jaune watched as the lead teen picked himself up and turn back to the fight probably expecting his two braver companions to deal with himself. Jaune smiled wickedly these fools had no idea that all of Jaune's spars had been carefully acted out to make Jaune appear average in every sense of the word.

Jaune twisted his blocking arm forcing the bat weapon away, he nimbly avoided the other teen's wild swing with a roll which put him directly in front of the leader. So stunned was the leader that Jaune had him airborne and colliding with his two more loyal followers before the poor teen's expression even altered.

The three boys spent what felt like ages to Jaune extracting themselves from the pile of themselves. Once Jaune was sure that they were sorted out he dove in, the two bat-wielding teens were completely caught off guard Jaune slipped inside their guards dropping one for good with a knee to the gut the other followed quickly with his legs being swept from beneath him and Jaune also applying extra force to his chest making sure the teen would be gasping for air for the next few minutes.

Jaune turned to the leader who was backing away from the campsite and Jaune. "Look Jau-Jaune, we didn't mean any of this, uh, how about this..." Jaune hadn't given the teen time to finish what he was going to say. Jaune had rushed him and stuck a blow to his gut causing the teen's last meal to revisit him.

While the teens lay on the ground writhing in pain Jaune disassembled his campsite again not wanting to be here any longer.

Jaune crouched down beside the leader. "Now are we gonna have a problem in the future?"

The teen gave a grunt that sounds very similar to a no which Jaune took as the answer he wanted.

"Oh, one more thing I will keep quiet about this little fight if you will! We wouldn't want the teachers at Signal to find out about this now would we?" and with that Jaune was gone off to set up another campsite and maybe get some rest.

* * *

 **Don't get used to two chapters so close together!**

 **To people that have been concerned about Yang not acting like the Yang that they are familiar with well the answer is simple this Yang had survived the Fall of Beacon and many years past that point also she was the last surviving member of her team. She is a much more hardened person she still has some vestiges or humor but they are generally a much more mature in nature.**

 **Also to the people sending me supportive PM's thank you all.**

 **I'm not used to Writing in a story sense almost all my writing come's from world building for DnD campaigns this is not the first time I have tried to write something like this but this is the first time I have attracted any kind of an audience so again thank you for your support and I hope I can continue to provide an entertaining story for everyone!**

* * *

 **Properly Beta'd Aug 19th 2017**


	5. Chapter 5

She landed gracefully, body spinning before the thrower had even released her leg. Twisting once more the fighter had closed with her opponent evading the man's quick and powerful weapon swings with but a whisper of air between herself and the man's weapon. The melee held for several moments before the two combatants split apart, both clearly breathing hard though the man was sucking in huge gasps of air while the woman looked like she was only just beginning to pant.

The entire audience knew then that barring some lucky strike on behalf of the man that the woman was going to win.

No one in the crowd was all that surprised, Pyrrha Nikos had dominated every tournament since her debut when she at the age of thirteen when she had wiped out all her opponents without receiving so much as a single blow herself.

Yang watched the fight from the dressing room she shared with the female competitors, it was the morning of the tournament so the room was full of hopeful fighters getting ready for their matches. When Yang saw Pyrrha she had panicked, she knew she wasn't ready to face her and until right before the match had begun Yang had worked herself up into fever only calming down when the fight announcer had mentioned that Pyrrha's fight was a promotional event and that She wasn't actually competing in this tournament. Yang had let out a sigh of relief that apparently many other fighters in the room had also. Though the sigh only lasted a short while as she found out the man Pyrrha was fighting was a Professional with a powerful Semblance one that had carried the man to several tournaments wins himself.

Yang had watched the entire fight and was confident that had she fought the man currently she would not have won. He would have been too fast and strong even using her own Semblance, Yang knew challenging the man was impossible for her and the fact the Pyrrha had bested him spoke volumes to their current difference in ability. Neither fighters had visible Semblances Pyrrha's was still unknown and as far as Yang knew no one would learn what it was until she attended Beacon, oh sure there were probably a few people who knew it but they were people that were trusted to keep it a secret. The man's Semblance was fairly well-known the people who fought against him would suffer from extreme depth perception issues and so his ability was common knowledge but even then it was a hard ability to fight against.

Pyrrha's fight with the man had no spectacular finish it was a drawn out affair then ended with the older man's Aura being depleted. That didn't mean the fight was dull just that the fight from the audience's view seemed muted in a sense.

Once Pyrrha's fight was over and the broadcast stopped streaming into the dressing rooms Yang turned back to her own preparations. She had months of training for this, plus all the experience she had amassed from her past life Yang felt confident that she would be able to handle anything this tournament could throw her way. Yang looked at her fight card again to see who she was going to be fighting in her first match. She didn't need to though there was no great strategy to be gleaned from a card that had the person's appearance and a name and nothing else on it.

* * *

Yang stepped up to the stage she would be fighting on, she knew the rules she had watched enough matches that there were only two ways to win. Deplete your opponents aura or knock your opponent off the stage. A faux referee went over the rules one last time before fleeing the ring but Yang paid the man no mind she was sizing up her opponent.

Yang wasn't impressed, the young man cut a dashing figure but his attitude and swagger made the man almost revolting to look at.

The faux ref had fled from the stage as soon as his foot left the final step a quick chime signaled the start of the match. Yang's opponent hadn't even entered into a fighting stance of any sort instead he had wasted his time ogling his opponent, even at fourteen, Yang was filling out to be the heartbreaker that she would be when she attended Beacon.

Yang took advantage of her opponents inaction, closing the distance between them in a quick dash. Yang didn't deploy Ember Celica leaving them hidden in their collapsed form. Yang was under her opponent, he had only just begun to react and throw up a sloppy guard to block the incoming attack. Unfortunately, the man was preparing to block a punch coming from a low angle but instead had his legs swept out from under himself.

Yang continued with the momentum from her leg sweep, increasing the speed her leg was traveling, her body made a tight revolution and her leg went from sweeping the legs out from underneath her opponent to above his head, her leg connected powerfully the slow fall the man was experiencing was altered into an uncorrectable head first dive into the stage, he didn't even have time to adjust his arms to cushion his landing.

Finishing her kick Yang leap back into a fighting stance expecting the man to return to his feet momentarily and for the fight to really get underway. Yang stumbled slightly as she landed from her jump, she had already been planning her next move when a bell had rung signaling the end of her fight. Correcting her balance she looked around to see what had happened and it didn't take much for her to find out why the match had ended. Her opponent was unconscious and his Aura was critically low, Yang was stunned she hadn't used her Semblance or even Ember Celica it had just been a simple combo and she had critically affected her opponents Aura.

As soon as Yang could she left the stage she grabbed her Scroll and sent a message to Jaune asking for him to call her when he had time. Yang only had to wait a minute before her scroll received a call.

"Yang what is it, are you alright, did something happen?" Jaunes voice was full of concern. Yang felt a twinge of guilt, the message had been sent in haste and apparently, Jaune had expected something awful to have happened to her, but she was also touched, Jaune clearly cared for her that his normally hidden or chaste emotions had bled through his voice.

"Nothing happened Jaune I won my first fight, actually I won it far too easily I beat my opponent in a single move." Yang would tease him later but at the moment she was hoping Jaune might have some insight. "I caught him off guard but like you told me I didn't employ Ember Celica or my Semblance."

"..." the line was quiet for a minute before Jaune's side of the line exploded with laughter.

"Whats so funny!" Yang's face flushed a deep shade of red she had wanted help and Jaune was laughing at her.

"Yang," Jaune calmed himself down to the point where he could talk. "Nothing is wrong and you don't need to worry." Jaune hadn't expected this and was going to have to think of a way to explain this.

"It has been so long since I experienced what you are going through It never even crossed my mind."

"You experienced this also what is it does your Semblance make you stronger also?" Yang's mind was having a had time at the moment it was refusing to process information.

"God I wish, for how many times I died if I got a power boost every time I would have been unstoppable a long time ago." Jaune smiled at the idea, though.

"Okay, I think I know how to explain what you're feeling. On your scroll, I'm sure you have a game or two that you would play right?" Jaune had no idea what was on Yang's scroll but with a sister like Ruby, he could guess there would be one or two games on it.

"Yeah..."

"Alright, you remember the first time you played one of those games and how challenging it was the first time around how all the enemies and bosses seemed so tough?"

"I guess yeah."

"Well, what about the second or third or fourth play through how challenged were those times?"

"Not very I guess." Yang was starting to see what Jaune was trying to explain. "But that should only count for things I have experienced before right?"

"In a sense, you're not wrong, but fighting isn't something new and different to you now is it? When you attended Beacon you quickly put yourself at the top of the class only being beaten by Pyrrha. You survived Beacon and Patch and even hunted down and killed Adam Taurus plus how many other fights did you gain experience from in those years we spent running? Plus there is all the extra training you have been putting yourself through. Hell, you even told me that might be able to beat Taiyang legitimately if you went all out with your Semblance and everything right off the bat." Jaune spoke all this through his Scroll smiling the entire time bringing back his own memories when he realized just how much stronger he had become.

"So I have no weird power boost or anything that was just all me that beat my opponent." Yang sagged against a wall in shock the realization hitting her. _God I'm stupid I should have realized this on my own, how didn't I, yeah I trounced everyone at Beacon but I could always do that. What about my dad am I really stronger than him? Sure in our first spar I had caught him flat-footed and all the ones after I have been throwing on purpose but could I really be this strong._ "Is that why you told me to not use my Semblance or Ember Celica unless I was losing?" Yang remembered the conversation from before she had left Signal to attend her first competition.

"Oh no nothing like that, though now that I heard how you ruined your opponent I'm glad I did." Jaune winced at the thought of the blow the man must have taken to both deplete his aura and rendered him unconscious in one go. "I asked you to do that to hide your real strength so your opponents wouldn't know what to expect while fighting you."

"So... wouldn't I be able to beat Pyrrha already then I have more experience than she does at this point?" Yang thought the question valid even though her mind thought of the fight she had watched earlier.

"Honestly, no, Pyrrha is a fighter of peerless capability. In all my lifetimes I have only earned a handful of victories over her and to call them real wins would be a disservice to the word. I can prepare you to face her and give you every advantage I can think of but if you fought her today the fight would only end in your loss." Jaune didn't want to be heartless he knew Yang had more than the potential to be Pyrrha's better and he was going to help her achieve that.

"When you say your wins over her would do a disservice to the word what does that even mean?" Yang had been confused on how Jaune had spoken not sure what that meant.

"Oh, that, well you could say the times I beat Pyrrha she had been lenient as to be able to reward me." Jaune was glad the call they were on was voice only as he was sure his face was a deep shade of red he didn't want to tell Yang that in his few and scattered victories over Pyrrha more than most would be Pyrrha losing on purpose and rewarding Jaune with some 'Stamina' training.

Yang guessed instantly what Jaunes meaning was hearing him speak like that made her cheeks flush slightly, she had guessed early on that Jaune had probably slept with her and everyone one of their friends probably teachers and people she had never and would never meet. "Well I could see the incentive behind losing to you, I have experienced the benefits of your training first hand. Yang smiled thinking of one of the few happy memories she had after the deaths of her team and family after Patch.

Yang heard a fair amount of sputtering coming from the other end of the call she imagined how flustered Jaune would be right now for someone so old he was somehow so easily embarrassed and Yang loved every second she made him uncomfortable.

Yang was about to end the call feeling incredibly confident that she would have no issues going forward. "Yang!" Jaunes voice carried loudly through the scroll.

"I have to warn you, I was my own greatest enemy for the longest time. My hubris lead to far too many failures, promise me you will treat every opponent with the seriousness you would show against any of our real enemies!" Jaunes words echoed with a ring of remorse.

"Jaune..." Yang wasn't sure what had happened to Jaune for his words to carry such emotion but it made her mind focused she wouldn't let Jaune down. "... I promise! Everyone I face I will never take any opponent lightly not just for you but for myself, I do like having both my arms again!" Yang smiled as she ended the call she had heard a gentle laugh come from the scroll in her hand.

With the call ended and her mind firmly set she proceeded back to her dressing room to wait for her next match.

* * *

The tournament progressed after a day of fighting Yang only had one more match against the other finalist. Yang had been true to her promise and treated every opponent she faced as a serious threat though she still heeding Jaunes other words about not showing skills and abilities if she didn't need to. Throughout all her fight in the Tournament Yang had not used her Semblance, that was going to be her final trump card the last thing she would ever show an opponent in this life. Ember Celica had remained un-deployed all day also she hadn't even once needed to deploy it actually she hadn't even had to use her fists she had defeated every opponent using only kicks. Yang laughed inwardly, in her past she almost never employed kicks. She had learned how to counter and deal with fighters who utilized their legs she had to when dealing with the likes of Neo and Mercury.

This time around she had decided to expand on her fighting style. Taiyang had been a great help in that he was a great all-around fighter the initial training was difficult but Yang quickly picked up the footwork that would be required to be a fighter that would be throwing both kicks and punches. Yang knew she had ways to go before she could be considered an equal to someone like Neo or Mercury but this was a start and really if she fought either of them again she would not rely only on kick's to beat them, no they would be met with everything she had.

Yang entered the fighter platform one more time she looked across at the only other remaining opponent another young man, he had a heavy muscular build and wielded what appeared to be a pair spears but Yang could tell be the joints on both spears that they were more than simple spears. Yang tensed the faux ref was leaving the arena which meant the match was about to begin.

" _Ding"_

The man was fast and had an incredible reach for the first time today Yang had not made the first move. But the move she made was a decisive one. The spear wielding man had expected Yang to retreat away from his weapon and was completely unprepared for what he saw or didn't see in this case.

Yang had jumped as the man attacked, leaping above him removing herself from his field of vision and before he had a chance to locate her the man felt a weight on his back. Yang had stuck the man in the back with a very heavy kick knocking the man down.

The man was back on his feet immediately he spared a quick glance to check his aura. That momentary distraction was not wasted, Yang had jumped at him the second his eyes flicked off her his spears proving useless as his mind wasn't ready to defend so suddenly. Yang drove a knee into the man's face causing him to stagger back his aura had protected him from a broken nose and likely a handful of teeth being removed as well.

Yang could see the man reeling, the first kick had not done any real damage but the knee had stunned him. Yang drove a leg into the man's side again his aura saving him for several broken ribs. Yang was about to follow that about with another kick when she heard the familiar 'ding' noise to signal the match was over.

Yang had won, the Tournament was over.

* * *

Above the stage in one of the private box's Pyrrha Nikos had watched the tournament with growing excitement.

As the first fights started and finished Pyrrha was impressed by some of the skill the fighters possessed. Pyrrha as much as she loved the challenge of a fight she could always appreciate watching others, there wasn't even a thought in the deepest part of her mind that none of these fighters would stand a chance against her. Pyrrha watched the fights and her eyes and mind devouring all she watched how fighters stood, the stances they used, and how they held their weapons.

Pyrrha watched through the first round of the tournament watching every fight and appreciating every move the fighters made. Pyrrha so badly wanted to leave the private box and sit beside the stage. She didn't though, thinking of all her fans that would swarm her kept her in the private box.

Turning her attention back to the stage below her Pyrrha saw the next two fighters enter. There was a young man who Pyrrha assumed was handsome the way she heard the distinctly female voices of the audience below her cheer when he entered, his opponent was a blonde girl. Pyrrha leaned forward excited to watch another fight.

Pyrrha heard the bell sound to signal the start of the fight, she was glad she had been giving the fight her full attention, had she blinked she might have missed something in the comically short and one-sided fight. The blonde girl had rushed her opponent as soon as the bell had sounded. The man had adopted the proper guard for the stance the female fighter had been in. Pyrrha read the girls stance, she was a boxer the man had also seen that and had thrown up a guard to protect from a punch from a low angle.

Pyrrha wasn't even sure how the blonde fighter had done it, suddenly her stance had warped into something else. She had forced the feet out from underneath the man and had twisted in way Pyrrha didn't know was possible and with such speed that the blonde had struck the man again with the same leg she had used to trip him was now delivering a blow to the side of the man's head driving his head and body into the floor as a painful speed. Pyrrha had been stunned, so quickly the match was over, Pyrrha looked at the blonde fighter who seemed equally as stunned as the audience that her opponent was down and out.

Through the rest of the day, Pyrrha paid close attention to the blondes fights. She was fascinating to watch. Pyrrha learned a great deal from watching the blondes fights.

The blonde was a confident fighter, after her first fight where she was stunned with how quickly her opponent was felled she had not shown that shock since. _She must be accustomed to fighting much stronger opponents._ Her stances altered rapidly from a boxer or brawlers stance to modified stances that could make use of kicks. _Her original training must have been as a fighter who uses her arms over her legs, she had worked hard to overcome that though now she can easily use kicking techniques, she feels most comfortable in a boxers stance until she is ready to attack then she will shift quickly._ She never employed a visible weapon or Semblance throughout any of her matches. _She is either extremely confident or arrogant... no, it would be confidence. If she were arrogant she would toy with her opponents instead she treats them all like serious threats._

Pyrrha was excited as the day progressed she learned the blonde fighters name 'Yang Xiao Long'. Watching her fights had been a treat and there was one more before the day ended. Pyrrha hoped for a long fight she could savor but doubted Yang could give that to her, she had ended all her fights very quickly not a single opponent lasting more than a minute.

The last fight was set to start Yang was facing off against a large man who wielded a pair of spears. Pyrrha wondered how Yang would deal with the man's huge reach as the girl hadn't fought any opponent yet that would have such an advantage in reach.

The bell sounded and Pyrrha was shocked at the speed the man dove towards Yang, he had probably learned how Yang took all her other opponents off guard with how quickly she moved so he was hoping to beat her on the draw so to speak. Pyrrha watched as the man's thrust hit nothing but air, Yang head jumped up and over the man likely completely out of the man's field of vision but not hers. Yang came down hard on the man's back staggering him then sending him into the floor as she pushed off his back.

The man was back on his feet quickly, Pyrrha wasn't sure if he was disoriented of dazed but he did nothing to stop Yangs second attack, the girl flew past the man's none existent guard and drove a knee into his face. Pyrrha watched as the man struggled to stay upright clearly succeeding but he had forgotten his opponent who Pyrrha watched deliver a powerful kick to the man's side and was about to deliver another when the bell sounded again.

Pyrrha sighed the fight had been too short again she wanted to see more.

 _No! I want to experience fighting her myself._ Pyrrha was excited she stood up and started to hunt down her manager. Her mind spinning she would find a way to fight this Yang.

* * *

Yang shuddered, feeling a chill run down her spine.

"Are you cold?" Taiyang said with concern.

"I little I guess" Yang replied not sure where the chill had come from.

Before Taiyang could do anything for his daughter had a coat, hot chocolate and Professor Port was walking alongside her carrying a person space heater pointed directed at his daughter. Taiyang wasn't even phased, having learned to ignore how the man could do strange things at times when the man deemed the task important enough, and apparently one of those jobs was now keeping his daughter comfortable at all times.

"Is there anything else you need Ms. Long?"

"Ah, no thank you this is already too much." Yang quickly handed the Professor back the coat and turned off the space heater he was carrying though she kept the hot chocolate.

Taiyang was still confused with the way Yang dealt with Port, it was marvelous it typically took a new person quite some time to understand the man and his odd behavior. Yang was never rude or impolite with the man even though he could tell that she, like everyone else struggled to stay awake when he got into one of his stories but in their personal interactions, she knew when to cut him off and how to steer the topic to make it seem like Ports decision.

Their group was just about to board a Bullhead Port had said he 'Borrowed' from Beacon when a flashily dressed man came running up to them.

"Wait! Stop, please stop!"

Port was in front of the man blocking his path from reaching either Yang or her Father. "I'm sorry sir, but I hope you understand Ms. Long and her father have a long trip back home and would like to get underway." Port smiled warmly but at the same time eyed the man suspiciously. "Tell me what business do you have with my friend and his daughter." Port spoke in a way that the man understood he would not be allowed to pass without the short man's permission.

"I represent Pyrrha Nikos, she watched Ms. Long's matches today and was impressed. She is requesting a match with your fighter." The flashily dressed man hastily spoke but from the way he watched the short man's eyes widen he knew that even if he didn't get a chance to speak to the young girl his message would be passed on.

"I will pass this along to Ms. Long but we will be leaving like I said we have a long trip ahead of us, thank you, sir, and have a fine evening!" Port was ecstatic he felt like he floated up to the Bullhead he couldn't wait to share the news.

Port closed the door of the Bullhead and took a seat next to Yang and Tai.

"What did that man want? He looked like a sleazy used car salesman." Yang asked curiously.

"He said he represented Pyrrha Nikos. Apparently, your display at the tournament sparked her interest. She is wondering if you would be interested in a fight with her?" Port smiled while he spoke obviously enjoying the thought of Yang defeating Pyrrha and claiming for Vale the prestige along with it.

Yang was shocked her first instinct was to call Jaune but there was no discreet way to do that with both her father and Professor Port watching her. Yang had never considered this would happen, the plan was for her to attend several tournaments, Jaune had planned it out the best he could to avoid any tournaments that Pyrrha would attend both he and Yang wanted to avoid that confrontation until the last possible moment to allow for as much training as possible.

"I don't think Yang is ready to fight someone of Pyrrha Nikos's level. You saw her match at the start of the night just like I did Port and look at how shocked Yang is." Tai gestured to his daughter.

"Thank you, dad. My father's right, I don't think me fighting Pyrrha would do any good right now, I saw her fight and as much as I hate to admit it she would mop the floor with me." Yang swallowed her pride she was confident she could put up a contest to Pyrrha but the point of this wasn't for a rushed fight that could go poorly. She tried to think of what Jaune would suggest. That was grasping at straws though, in the end, this was her decision. "I will fight Pyrrha eventually but I'm not going to rush into a fight like that without preparing. I would like more training and experience before I have to fight her."

Tai smiled thoughtfully at his daughter, glad she had the wisdom to think this situation through like this, a lot of people her age would jump at the chance for that kind of fame.

Port was smiling too, true he had wanted to book the fight as soon as he could but Ms. Long had made a wise choice. Plus she still agreed to the fight, when she was ready and prepared both signs that she was a true hunter who used her head.

The rest of the flight home was spent on simpler topic's though Yang did make one small mention of tournaments going forward to make sure that they avoided the ones with Pyrrha until she felt she was ready, both men had agreed though Port had only reluctantly.

* * *

 **People might get upset that I reused part of this chapter but just gave it a different perspective but I felt it was important to give Yang's thoughts on her fights and I didn't want Pryyha to just randomly want to fight Yang at the end of the chapter either so I felt she needed a little bit of narrative as well.**

 **Side note writing Pyrrha is hard I kept erasing entire paragraphs as the more I wrote for her the less like the Pyrrha she felt I tried to keep it simple for her and hopefully in the future at Beacon, I will find her easier to write for.**

 **Properly Beta'd Aug 19th  
**


	6. Chapter 6

**Preparation Days  
**

* * *

Ozpin took a long drink from his cup he had just read through a report from Taiyang.

"What do you make of this? I know I haven't asked you to look into the boy Qrow but do you feel Taiyang's words are accurate?" Ozpin stared at the dark haired man while taking another sip.

"You mean that blonde kid Jaune don't cha?" Qrow took the report and flipped through it casually before placing it on the table again. "Oz I don't know your fixation with this kid but you have had Tai watching him for a year and a half and he hasn't come across anything that would warrant the concern your feeling towards him. Yeah, the kid has some inconsistencies about him I'll admit, and he is definitely too friendly with my niece's but there is nothing sinister about the kid." Qrow mimicked Ozpin by producing a flask and having a sip as well.

"It is exactly those inconsistencies that worry me, but you are right I have spent to much time focused on the boy. Instead, let us talk about your niece I hear she has become quite the fighter, entered her first tournament and won, quite the feat and above that she wasn't struck even once." Ozpin turned to a drawer on his desk and pulled out a folder which he placed in front of Qrow.

Qrow picked up the new folder and flipped through it. It was filled with images of young aspiring hunter names, weapons, skills even a list of known Semblances. "Whats this Oz?"

"Those Qrow, were Yang's opponents many of them are very skilled fighters and your niece bested all of them in a single day without being struck once."

"Yeah, so it's not like that hasn't happened before. Hell that Nikos girl did the same thing a few years back I don't remember you being concerned about that?" Qrow stated an obvious truth it wasn't unknown to happen where a fighter would end up sweeping a competitive event unscathed.

"Did you watch any of the fights? No those never interested you even when you were younger. Well let me tell you your niece fought all her opponents without the use of her weapon or her typical fighting style, and unless she has a non-visible Semblance like your own it would be safe to assume she did not employ her Semblance either. Does she have a Semblance like yours?" Ozpin asked genuinely curious as someone with a rather unusual Semblance himself other people's fascinated him.

"If she does Oz passive Semblances aren't the easiest things to notice and ones like mine are even harder to figure out let alone explain how they work, but no If she has an activated or passive Semblance I don't know people live a long time in some cases before the figure theirs out." Qrow spoke angrily not at Ozpin but himself he blamed himself and his Semblance for a great deal of bad that had happened in his life and didn't like thinking about it.

"Qrow I would like you to spend more time at Signal I feel I have overworked you I think being around your family would do you some good."

Qrow watched Ozpin he knew he had been dismissed in typical Oz fashion but he didn't leave instead, he stared very intently at the man who now had his back turned and was staring out his office window. Qrow knew what Ozpin wanted and for the first time in a very long time, Qrow wasn't sure if he was willing to follow the man's lead. "You can be a real pain in the ass Oz you know that right." Qrow turned and left the office going to hunt down a drink.

"..."

* * *

Qrow sat alone drinking he hadn't left Vale yet not wanting to return home and have to make the choice between spying on his family or refusing to go along with Ozpin's idea that Yang needed to be observed. Qrow was actually feeling the liquor which to him was unusual being in a near perpetual state of drunk for as long as he had he wasn't quite sure what it would take for him to truly become inebriated at this point. _Apparently being asked to spy on my niece by a guy I trust to keep the world from going to hell is the answer to that little bit of philosophy._ _That's it isn't it? I'm going to follow Oz's order's as much as I want not to, and really with my luck wouldn't it be that my own damn family would be a threat to the world._ Qrow drained his current glass and the one to follow that. Qrow stood and swayed a bit but managed to keep his feet on the ground he turned to the Bullhead docks for a ride home not trusting himself to fly on his own.

* * *

Jaune was watching Yang and loving every minute of what he saw. It had been a week since the tournament and Yang looked absolutely miserable, she hadn't had a moment's peace since the news had spread how she had dominated her competition. Originally Yang enjoyed the attention but after an entire week, she was beyond fed up with everyone wanting to be around her. Jaune knew all this she had told him through multiple scroll messages that as the days had advanced had become less about complaining and more calling for help to save her from her fans.

Jaune had taken no action to help her he instead savored the looks of helplessness Yang had for she couldn't think of a way to extract herself from the attention. He knew he would pay for this later but for the time being he felt it was a form of revenge for Yang's constant stream of teasing he was forced to endure.

I was lunch time at Signal and Jaune sat alone, well there were other people around him but everyone at his table was content to ignore the others and just eat their meals. Jaune had already finished and was about to leave he felt someone slip up behind him.

"Hello, Ruby to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"How do you always know it's me?" Ruby pouted a bit she had been trying to sneak up on Jaune for months and so far had never succeeded.

"Well, its a fairly dead give away when you're the only person at Signal who tries to sneak around in combat boots and smells of cookies." Jaune smiled as he left the cafeteria Ruby following along.

"You're not going to save my sister from all those people?"

"Yang's a big girl if she puts her mind to it I'm sure she could find a way to escape her throng of admirers, and personally between you and me I'm using this as a bit of revenge for all the times she teases me." Jaune looked down at Ruby, he wore a smile that Ruby once she understood what he meant she flashed one back.

"So what are you going to do today? Normally you and Yang would disappear around this time and no one can find you."

Jaune was impressed, Ruby had been watching them and knew at least one day and time that the two of them would normally disappear for their personal training. "I'm going to do the same thing I do every day Yang being there won't change anything." He lied slightly, yes he could still train but the point of them both leaving was to prepare Yang to face Pyrrha.

"So you are going to train then that's what I assumed."

Jaune wasn't sure but he thought he saw Ruby sigh slightly. _Not gonna touch that topic with a ten-foot pole. "_ Of course it's just training, your sister is my friend she saw how I was struggling in the sparring classes and she offered to help me in private." Jaune lied again but he and yang had planned for people finding out and had a fairly solid story to cover up there disappearances.

"I could help you too, I have my aura and Semblance and I, uh could help you deal with opponents that have larger weapons." Ruby bubbled with energy she liked Jaune he treated her like a real friend and she wanted to help.

"Thanks, Ruby I could use a partner for today."

* * *

Yang had watched Jaune and Ruby leave and wished she could find some way to escape and join them. She was tired of being polite and answering the same question's repeatedly at this point she was sure anyone around her could probably tell the story of her fights as well or better than she could herself.

 _I could break all their legs they wouldn't be able to follow me if I did that._ She was actually considering that option when her Scroll rang. She excused herself and answered mentally thanking whatever divine providence allowed her to at least temporarily escape.

"Hey Firecracker, I gotta say you look miserable, being the center of attention finally losing its appeal?" Qrow stood across the hall from Yang and figured he would come to her rescue.

"You have no idea Qrow." Yang spotted her uncle across the room and while keeping the appearance of talking on the phone she rapidly made her way to him to escape.

"I owe you one, I was at the point of breaking I was considering leg fractures as a possible escape scenario." Yang stretched tense muscles as she walked alongside her uncle.

"Ha, no problem kiddo, what's family good for if you can't help each other escape from uncomfortable situations."

"You don't normally come to the cafeteria for lunch you always disappear into town what made you stop by today?" Yang knew her uncles routine pretty well she and Jaune had to planned their training days pretty meticulously so that neither Taiyang or Qrow would notice her missing.

"If you would believe it I was nursing a hangover this morning I slept in my office and missed both my morning lessons." Yang actually couldn't believe it she didn't remember a single time where Qrow had actually admitted to being hungover or for that fact him actually stopping drinking long enough for a hangover to start. "Ah well, I did my good deed for the day I need to go find Tai." With that Qrow made a sharp turn and left Yang alone.

 _This wasn't right Qrow might drink more than anyone else but he was never drunk!_ Yang pondered over what this could mean and figured it was out of character enough that she should probably tell Jaune. _Jaune, I almost forgot well I'll tell him about Qrow acting weird while I break his legs for abandoning me!_

Enough time had passed from when Jaune and Ruby left and Qrow had rescued her Yang wasn't sure where they might have gone but she hoped it wasn't inside Signal as she wasn't planning on sticking around the school and having her fans track her down again. Yang turned and made straight for the main gate hoping she could get there and leave the School without being spotted.

Behind her Qrow stepped back into the hallway he had left Yang in once she was out of sight Qrow took a long drink from a flask and followed after his niece.

* * *

Jaune parried another heavy blow from Cresent Rose, he had considered going easy on Ruby but decided that he could use this rare opportunity to help her with some issues. Though he still had to mute his abilities quite a bit to pretend like it was Ruby who was helping him train but Jaune was very practiced in that.

Ruby rained blow's down on Jaune he either dodged completely or in the instances where dodging was not going to cut it he would deflect Ruby's huge weapon. Each time he deflected Ruby because of her speed would be sent careening off course and would land roughly against the terrain. Jaune hoped she was picking up on the lesson Jaune was silently trying to teach her.

Jaune remembered too many times watching Ruby face off against Roman Torchwick and she was a novice on how to deal with an opponent who wasn't a mindless Grimm. She always managed to survive those encounters but Jaune always felt they were too close for comfort.

Jaune watched Ruby flash across the clearing using both her weapon and Semblance to propel herself forward faster than she had been before. Jaune dodged her first pass barely, before Jaune recovered Ruby was already lined up and charging again. Jaune stood his ground this time Ruby, had gotten into the fight. Jaune had frustrated her too much by dodging and deflecting all her attacks she was intent on landing a hit now. Jaune braced himself he briefly thought of employing his shield but decided against it his shield was a trump card that even though this was Ruby he didn't want that to be known to anyone.

Cresent Rose crashed into Jaune's armguard, the blow was absorbed quite well but there was just too much momentum behind the attack Jaune felt his feet leave the ground as he was picked up by the scythe and thrown across the clearing where he landed roughly against a tree.

"JAUNE!" Ruby ran up beside Jaune and knelt down. "I'm sorry please be alright I just got caught up in the fight please be alright."

Jaune raised an arm and placed it on her shoulder. "Heh, good hit Ruby." Sitting up Jaune looked at Ruby and saw the visible concern she might have hurt him was readily apparent in her expression. "But I have been taking Yangs punches for months while she trained me so this isn't anything new to me." That was a lie Jaune had taken many hits from Yang over the months but those were to distract Taiyang from becoming more curious of his daughter's time spent with him, Yang hadn't been so lucky in there private training Jaune was the one who was dealing all the blow's then.

"You're not mad at me?" Jaune saw real concern behind her eyes that he might hate her now.

"Ruby this was a spar I can't be mad that you hit me or else I would have to be mad at everyone who hit me in a spar and to be honest I think I kinda deserved the hit you gave me I was being a bit cheeky to you during the spar myself."

"What do you mean you were dodging and deflecting all my attacks were you doing something else?"

Jaune smiled inwardly. "Well, I noticed pretty early on you don't have much experience fighting against human opponents do you?"

"No, I only have a little bit of sparring with other students at Signal and well theirs my Uncle too he's the one who handles my training. My weapon and fighting style are modeled after his after all."

"Well, you might want to ask Qrow how to deal with people who can deflect your attacks like I did whenever I managed to Deflect one of your blows it sent you careening off course what would happen if you had an opponent who was skilled enough to capitalize on that?" Jaune watched as Ruby seemed to understand what he was saying. Her current style was great against Grimm but very early on people aspiring to be hunters learn that almost as often as they are sent out to deal with the Grimm that they may end up facing human opponents as well.

"Jeeze I thought I was supposed to be helping your train but here I am being the only to learn something."

"It's something good to learn though." Yang said from nearby.

Ruby jumped in shock so panicked that she didn't notice that Jaune hadn't been even been startled. "Yang what are you doing here?"

"Me I should ask you that I escape my fans. No thanks to either of you." Yangs eyes glinted at both of them and was pleased to see they shared a mutual look of concern at the implied threat her look gave them. "I was coming her to see if Jaune had come here to train today and I find my sister kneeling over top of him having what look's to be a tender moment." Yang knew that while young and innocent and well slow on the uptake at times Ruby was not as niave as most people thought.

Ruby's face turned the shade of her name she was so flustered by her sister she couldn't think of anything to say in response instead she collapsed Cresent Rose activated her Semblance and was gone in an instant.

"That was mean Yang." Jaune stood up looking in the direction Ruby had vanished into before directing his attention to Yang.

"I thought it was cute, my little sister has a crush on you, please tell me you didn't know." Yang looked hopeful that she might be able to find anything thing to pick on Jaune with.

"I did pick up on it earlier. How long has she been like this?" _It wasn't until after the Fall that Ruby would ever develop those feelings for anyone._

"Honestly I don't know? I didn't expect that reaction from her I was just teasing." Yang smiled, the comment had been entirely off hand but she wasn't going to let her sister off so easily she will save this little piece of knowledge for another time.

"So how did you escape anyways? I figured you would have been stuck all day not that I'm glad it means we can actually do some meaningful training!" Jaune walked toward the center of the clearing while drawing Crocea Mors.

"If you would believe it Qrow came to my rescue." Yang proceeded to stand opposite Jaune and deploy Ember Celica. "He was actually acting kinda strange he actually admitted to having a hangover, I don't think I have ever heard him say those words."

 _Qrow was acting weird?_ Jaune scanned the surrounding suddenly feeling very exposed, it was hard to do discretely. Jaune casually fiddled with his armguard that hid his shield, he had been about to deploy it when Yang had made the comment about Qrow behaving oddly now it was giving him much needed time to think, Yang wasn't going to attack until his shield was up as her training revolved heavily on her being ready to fight against Pyrrha.

 _I can't just stop right now! If Qrow is watching that would be just as suspicious._ Jaune looked towards Yang hoping she might have picked up on something was wrong but at least to him, she was just waiting to start. _Shit shit shit okay I literally have no option right now if Qrow is watching he's already suspicious if I stop right now he will assume I know he is watching so the best option is to get my ass handed to me by Yang and hope she catch's on._

Jaune left his shield hidden trying to give Yang a visual cue that something wasn't right. Jaune sprinted forward much like when he had been sparing with Ruby a short while ago he was throttling him strength. Leaping Juane brought his weapon down in a very basic slash, he wasn't surprised when Yang had dodged it with ease he followed that with several stabs's they were faster and stronger than his previous move but still nothing that showed any real skill. Jaune proceeded to follow up with basic attacks hoping Yang would pick up something was wrong soon.

 _What are you doing? Whats with this comically slow speed and beyond basic attacks._ Yang had dodged all of Jaunes attacks, it wasn't hard he was moving painfully slow and when he tried to strike his blows lacked either power or accuracy. After several minutes Yang understood. _Someone is watching us the only one here was Ruby if she was around still, of course, he wouldn't be able to fight normally._ Yang watched Jaune more intently that she had been before her eyes locked with his and he made a quick wink.

Jaune ducked under Yang his speed and carried him under her guard and he finally swung for real even if the move was almost choreographed. This was one of Pyrrha's moves one of the first that Jaune had taught Yang to counter and boy did she. Jaune felt Ember Celica connect with his ribs driving the air from him even with his aura protecting him for any broken bones. Jaune pressed on though Yang had countered the blow perfectly, he rolled away normally his shield would have been there to deal with the blow he had taught Yang to counter. Rolling to his feet Jaune this time he went for another of Pyrrha's moves, Jaune had to improvise this one as he didn't have Pyrrha's Semblance to return his weapon after a throw. Juane threw his blade at Yang which she deflected with ease but Jaune was already there in front of her one of his legs lancing forward.

Yang watched Jaunes leg lance toward her it had been moving too fast to do anything about until it wasn't Jaune had slowed his kick. _God damn your impressive!_ Yang spun to the side avoiding the kick and connecting with Jaunes skull with a back hand from Ember Celica. Yang winced Jaune had already taken an incredible blow to his ribs and now she had just given him another to his head.

Jaune hit the ground his aura was spent between the hit from Ruby earlier and the two freebies he had given Yang to make this look convincing Jaune couldn't even muster the strength to role over and look at Yang. "Well another spar and I still cannot touch you, I thought maybe I had a chance with that last one guess your just too fast." Jaune spoke into the ground, he figured she was close enough to hear.

"It was a good one, you might have had me if you were a bit faster with that kick." Yang smiled knowing the truth but she knew this conversation was for there hidden watcher.

"Nah even if I got the hit I lost my weapon the whole attack was just a kamikaze to catch you off guard." Jaune rolled over and stood up albeit quite wobbly. "I think between you and Ruby I have had enough for one day."

"Here let me help you." Yang slid under one of Jaunes arms before he could protest. "Training is over for today lets go get a drink."

Jaune nodded and leaned on Yang slightly he was quite spent, the two of them made a slow trip back into town.

* * *

Behind them hidden deep in the trees a Black Crow changed into the form of a man. Qrow took out his flask and poured the last of its contents down his throat.

Qrow had seen enough he had arrived shortly after Yang who had watched Jaune and Ruby's spar before making her presense known. Qrow had been shocked, Jaune easily dealt with Ruby's semblance handling the speed with ease, not to mention the way he deflected her much larger weapon showed a great deal of skill, more than Jaune ever displayed in Signal. The finale was what really showed Jaunes skill, though, Qrow was impressed, Jaune had seemed to understand that his niece had lost her temper and wanted to land a blow so he had obliged her accepting a blow that he could withstand and before Ruby had lost control of her speed and potentially hurt herself.

 _Well, I thought you were just being paranoid Oz but your right this kid is just full of inconsistencies._

Qrow had watched Ruby run off he was too far away to hear what was said but it was hard to miss the fact that her face was a red as her name.

 _Huh, wonder what that was about?_

Qrow had then watched Jaune and Yang square off against each other, or he would of if he could call that a fight. The spar between Jaune and Yang was strange at the start Yang had a stance that looked like she was going to be the attacker, after Jaune had attacked Yang had looked confused though that expression changed shortly before Jaune took his fist hit, after that the fight seemed more natural looking.

 _Well, this is gonna be a headache for me going forward.  
_

Qrows mind spun with possibilities.

 _Jaune is definitely more than he wants to be taken for, but what is his connection with Yang. If they assumed someone was watching them that show was meant to make it seem like Yang was trying to help Jaune be a better fighter. Does that mean its the opposite?_ Qrow lifted his flask to take another drink but found it to be empty. "Great I have a headache and I'm outta booze."

Qrow turned towards town though more specifically the nearest bar. _What the hell am I gonna tell Oz!_

* * *

Qrow was just barely making it back to Signal after getting a drink and refilling his flask when he was tackled by his younger niece, Ruby.

"UNCLE QROW, I have been looking for you everywhere!" Ruby exclaimed loudly while hanging from her uncles back.

"Well ya found me, what can I do for you Shortstack?" Qrow shook Ruby of his back and rubbed a hand through her hair as she moved to walk beside him.

"I need help with some training to fix the way I attack." Ruby looked up at Qrow hoping her uncle would be able to understand the problem she was about to explain. Her weapon and fighting style had been in part modeled after his own but her small size coupled with herSemblance made a definitive split on how much she could really actually use what Qrow had taught her. "I was sparring with Jaune earlier and he kept deflecting my attacks and when I used my Semblance it would send me careening out of control, he also pointed out after we were done that if someone was good enough they could really take advantage of that!"

 _How did I miss that when I trained her? Damn, that should have been obvious, shouldn't it?_

"Sure I can help you with that kid, though much like your other training I can only teach you the skills I know you are going to have to figure out which ones you can utilize."

"Thank you, Uncle Qrow." Ruby hugged him tight around the waist it had been awhile since she had managed to get Qrow to do any really training with her in a long time. _I'll have to thank Jaune too for giving me a good enough reason get Qrow to agree as well._

Qrow instead of heading to his office turned and lead Ruby to one of the empty classrooms that had a combat stage.

* * *

 **WoW, another one!  
**

 **I honestly don't know how people do this writing is hard. Well, sometimes it is the last chapter felt so easy to write this one dear lord went from only 3500 words until it exploded into almost 10k which would have made it the longest thing I have ever written.**

 **If you are wondering where the other 5000 words went well about 3000 of them were completely removed as I couldn't get the interaction between the two people to sound the way I wanted it too without writing paragraphs explaining the reasoning behind almost every response and after reading it through I found it to be quite boring.**

 **The other 1500 words are going to be my start point for the next chapter!**

 **I don't have any sort of schedule in mind yet this week has been a huge exception to what my usual workload is so I had a lot of free time to spend on other things and I chose to write. That being said the response I have got so far has been overwhelming this is quickly becoming my favorite writing project and I will strive to have a new update every week (hopefully multiple) that I will add on Saturday or Sunday.**


	7. Chapter 7

The buildup!

* * *

 _You never cease to amaze me, kid._

Qrow watched as Ruby shifted mid-air and corrected the seemingly uncontrollable path his deflection had sent her on. It had taken the entire afternoon and Ruby still had a long ways to go before he would consider her capable at being able to correct herself, but these last few attempts showed a great deal of promise that she was figuring out a way to deal with a Deflection that wouldn't drastically alter the way she fought.

"Take a rest kid." Qrow took his own advice not having the energy to keep up with his niece at least not when she really got into something.

"Did you see that one? I managed to not run into anything and I didn't come to a complete stop either!" Ruby exuded happiness.

"Yeah I saw, I'm glad you figured out without me saying it but coming to a dead stop was only slightly better than ending up on your face." Qrow remembered the image from early how every deflection he did ended up with Ruby crashing into a heap. Pulling his flask out he took a pretty small sip his mind still trying to make sense of what he saw earlier.

 _Before Ruby grabbed me I was going to report straight to Oz, but the more I think about it did I actually see anything truly suspicious or am I just connecting things together cause Oz is so certain something is going on?_ Qrow looked at his flask considering another drink but ultimately deciding against it. "It's getting pretty late kid, let's call it a day here I'll walk you home I need to speak with Tai anyways."

"Okay." Ruby quickly collected her things and left with Qrow.

"So, Jaune do you spar with him often?" Qrow figured that asking a few questions might give him some insight.

"No, he normally disappears with Yang or if she's busy he seems to write a lot."

"Oh? do you know what he writes about?"

"I've never gotten a very good look at it but he seems to write about a bunch of different things."

"Like what?"

"Dunno most of it doesn't make sense there are loads of abbreviations and references to things like I said it doesn't make sense. Although he gave a book to Yang I snuck a look at that one and it made a lot more sense. She must have told him she was going to be fighting in tournaments and he gave her a book that had whole lists of fighters what kinds of weapons they used known Semblances." Ruby smiled as she spoke looking up at Qrow. "Did you know Pyrrha Nikos's weapon had three forms?"

"No I didn't that sounds painfully confusing to me, must be a young person weapon like yours." Qrow smiled at his niece.

The were approaching the path to Ruby's home when from the other direction Qrow and Ruby both spotted Jaune and Yang who didn't seem to have spotted them. Ruby quickly grabbed Qrow and dragged him out of sight from the path.

"Uh, Ruby why am I hiding behind this tree with you?" Qrow felt ridiculous he guessed he might want to give Ruby lessons on how to hide if she thought this worked on any level.

"Well obviously were spying on Yang and Jaune." Ruby answered back thinking that the act of doing it was reason enough to do it.

Qrow pulled out his flask and took a drink. _Yup definitely going to have to teach Ruby a few things about stealth later._

Qrow knelt beside Ruby looking past her to watch Yang and Jaune. As far away as they were they couldn't have any hope to make out what they were saying to each other than assuming it was a pleasant conversation by the way Yang kept laughing and Jaunes face was a bright red. They watched as the two teens reached to path leading to Yang's home, judging from the way his blonde niece was standing it seemed like she didn't want to leave the young man. They finally parted ways after a few minutes of conversation, Jaune had rested a hand on his niece's shoulder which seemed to give his niece some kind of relief from splitting with the young man. Jaune turned and left waving with his back turned, Qrow watched his niece intently she stayed on the path watching the way Jaune left for far too long before she seemed to snap back to reality and turned down the path to head home. Beside him, he both felt and heard Ruby release a breath she had been holding in for awhile apparently as her face was red from holding her breath.

"Come on Shortstack shows over let's get going too." Qrow stood up and moved towards the path himself, Ruby caught up with him moments later, if he would have looked down he might have noticed that Ruby looked deep in thought.

* * *

The evening hadn't been too eventful for Qrow. Taiyang had laid out an extra plate and the four of them had sat down for a meal, afterward Ruby and Zwei kept them all entertained until the girls went off to bed. When it was just himself and Taiyang left awake there two men sat outside around a fire they had built earlier. Conversation that happened between them was talk of Signal, events around Patch, pretty much any topic Qrow could think of to avoid the subject he really wanted to talk about unfortunately Taiyang seemed to get tired and wanted to get to the point.

"Qrow, what is it? What's going on you aren't typically this evasive around me?" Tai looked at his friend, he knew Qrow had a great many secrets and even though he was privy to many of them so whatever Qrow was mentally debating tell him now must be a bad one.

"Heh, i'm so easy to read am I? Just can't want to spend an evening with my family?" Qrow looked up at Tai though judging from the look Tai gave him he wasn't going to believe that. "Yeah okay stop with the glare would ya!" Qrow shifted in his seat getting comfortable. "Oz filled me in on what you have been doing this past year or so, he uh wasn't satisfied with your appraisal of the young man. He also is more than a little concerned about how Yang has advanced recently." Qrow looked at Taiyang watched as his friend's face turned unrecognizable his eyes hardened and his jaw clenched.

"So he asked you to spy on my daughter your own flesh and blood niece?" Taiyang spoke coldly watching Qrow's every move and gesture.

"Actually technically he never asked me to do that, according to Oz I am overworked by all my hunter trips so he's letting me have a vacation of sorts where I'm to hang around on Patch and teach." Qrow knew what Ozpin meant and Qrow also knew that Taiyang would know what Ozpin meant also.

"So what are you going to do then? I have never known you to go against Ozpin!" Taiyang relaxed slightly he trusted Qrow probably more than he should knowing where his friend came from but he had earned that trust over a lifetime.

"Well, I'm going to follow Oz's orders he wants me to stay at Signal and teach I'll stay at Signal and teach." Qrow spoke into his drink.

"You're still going to keep tabs on Yang, though?" Tai read Qrows body language like a book.

"God damn it Yes! Tai, I'm going to keep tabs on your daughter, my niece. How often has Ozpin ever been wrong? Never in the entire time, I've known him. Judging from what little I saw today Ozpin's not wrong about Jaune. The kids a knot of problems whether he's a friend or a foe I have no idea but what I do know is he and Yang are connected somehow. So would you rather me ignore all this and pretend like nothing is going on or would you rather learn the truth?" Qrow spoke heatedly he didn't like this anymore that Tai but he couldn't afford to ignore things like this.

Tai slouched into his seat he knew Qrow was right. Ozpin had never been wrong even if there were times his decisions weren't the best but being completely wrong about something that had never happened. "You said what you saw today, what happened?"

Qrow told Taiyang what he had seen today the spar between Jaune and Ruby and after that the one between Yang and Jaune he explained all the inconsistencies he even added in his training and conversation with Ruby and as an afterthought he told Taiyang about what he witnessed on the path leading to Tai's house he didn't skip a single detail. Once he finished Qrow watched the fire as it slowly burned the last of its life out while he waited for Taiyang to process everything.

Taiyang sat silently also watching the fire his mind slowly going over the story Qrow told him.

 _Jaune being well, inconsistent wasn't anything new. Yang and Ruby being friends with him is troubling the worst thing is though is that Yang seem's to know what's going on! No not just know what's going on she's actively trying to keep his secret._ _  
_

Taiyang thought back to all the sparring class's he had had Jaune fight in. _If Jaune could dodge or deflect all of Ruby's attacks that would easily put him well above every other student I had placed him against._ Taiyang knew this as Ruby while young could easily handle most any other student at Signal already so much so that finding her appropriate spar partners had become almost impossible. _Which meant Jaune was actively trying to look like a weaker fighter. Why would anyone do that though he must have a clear reason..._

Taiyang's head starting to swim with wild and outlandish reasons he couldn't actually think of any logical reasons why Jaune would do that.

Taiyang and Qrow talked long into the night going over everything they knew about the young man. As the night wore on they had no real luck forming any real concrete theory so they gave up Taiyang offered Qrow the couch but Qrow had somewhere else to be. Taiyang watched as his friend shifted into a familiar form and took off from Patch heading towards Beacon.

* * *

Jaune watched as Qrow flew off towards Beacon he had spent his evening watching the Xaio Long house. He couldn't get close enough to overhead anything but the fact that Tai and Qrow had stayed up so late and from there expressions there was a problem the two men were trying to sort through.

 _Now is that problem me or is it Yang?_ Jaune turned and made his way to his camp site. _What can I even do at this point! every other time I have spent this much time on Patch I have never drawn attention like I have although I have never interacted with Yang or Ruby directly before Beacon either. It's clear now with the way Qrow left that Ozpin is involved. Have I ever successfully confronted Ozpin without it backfiring on me?_ Jaune walked into his camp site and laid down it was close enough to dawn that he wasn't going to go to sleep but he was going to at least let his muscles relax before he had to start another day. _Running is out of the question I can't and won't abandon Yang. So what does that leave me with options? I can't become more proactive that's just going to make everyone more suspicious. Staying the same and hoping for the best is also beyond foolish but I really have no choice but to do that but be more careful.  
_

As the new day started to begin Jaune stood with a great sigh prepared for a long day.

* * *

"You know how this all sounds to me Qrow!" Ozpin stared at the man leaning against his table.

"Yeah, I know how it sounds. What are you going to do with this information Oz?" Qrow's voice betrayed an amount of concern.

"Unfortunately while this does reconfirm my suspicions about the young Mr. Arc he has not done anything to warrant any actual response, If being secretive and evasive were crimes then we would be world class criminal's ourselves." Ozpin watched as Qrow relaxed slightly. "There is nothing to do right now, though. The young man is intent on keeping his secrets whatever they are. Keep an eye on him it is all we can do for the time being." Ozpin turned to his window taking a drink from his ever-present cup.

Qrow turned to leave as he reached the door though he stopped and looked back at Ozpin. "Oz...I have seen him around my nieces I believe he truly cares about them and I know they care about him too." Qrow didn't wait for a response instead he left to head back to Signal.

Ozpin turned from the window and watched as the door to his office slowly slide closed.

* * *

Jaune slumped down against a tree his body ached from not enough rest and his mind wasn't any better. It had been a week since he had all but learned the Qrow was now watching him. "Take a break, Yang." Jaune waved to Yang who probably didn't need the break herself but that didn't stop him from needing one.

"You need more than a five minute break Jaune you look like shit when was the last time you slept properly?" Yang knelt beside the man looking over him with a great deal of concern.

"That would be eight days ago if you want the honest answer." Jaune stood up and adopted Pyrrha Nikos's starter stance.

Yang watched but didn't go to her start position instead she remained under the tree. "We are done for the day Jaune if you push yourself without resting you are not just hurting yourself, your hurting our plan." Yang stood and performed the action to have Ember Celica compact down to their concealed form.

Jaune sheathed his blade he knew Yang was right he needed to relax if anything was going to happen it would have at this point. Jaune walked over to the tree and sat down next to Yang.

"That's better but you still need some actual rest your beyond exhausted and no good to anyone, let alone trying to train me!" Yang sat down beside Jaune. I have another Tournament tomorrow when I get back you need to be better you said it yourself before we can't afford to waste time."

"I know Yang I know a problem with too much knowledge is I know, no, knew how Qrow and Taiyang should have reacted but something is altered drastically enough that what I knew about them is no longer correct." Jaune closed his eyes and rested his back against the tree. "I will get some rest while your away even If I can't stop my mind from over thinking everything thing that seems wrong or out of character I can at least be rested enough to properly train you when you get back." Jaune spoke while stifling a yawn.

"That's at least a start and maybe if you're less tired your mind will find things easier to accept." Yang stood and offered a hand to Jaune which he took, "Come on I know you need sleep but passing out here isn't going to do you any good let's get some food in you and get you back to your campsite."

Jaune didn't argue and let her lead him into town and to a restaurant that would still be serving lunch.

"Any concerns going into this competition Yang? There will be more skilled fighters than the other one you attended, you have read the book I've given you right?" Jaune asked while they waited for their meal.

"I'm less worried about the competition and more worried about Pyrrha. According to Professor Port, her agent has been very active in trying to find a way to fight me. Port is stonewalling any single fight events currently but if she finds a way to enter one of my competitions after the entry deadline I'm not sure what I should do." Yang's concern was obvious to Jaune.

"Well you don't need to worry about it for this next one there are only sixteen fighters and I have double checked if any fighter were to drop out at the last minute the are at least a dozen reserve fighters that would also need to drop out before Pyrrha would have a chance to enter." Jaune reminded her that everything had been planned out meticulously as to avoid that unwanted confrontation. "That's not going to stop her from watching though unlike your first event this one is big enough to be streamed live so try and hold back will you the less she knows the better."

"Yeah, I know. No Semblance no Ember Celica if I can avoid it and preferably no fists." Yang slumped into her chair, she was fine without using her Semblance during her other life she realized she relied on it too much. Ember Celica though she felt naked not having it deployed in a fight.

"I know what your thinking Yang and if you really want to use Ember Celica I won't stop you but you know my reasoning behind wanting you to keep them hidden." Jaune had explained many times how keeping his shield hidden had been on the difference sometimes in some of the toughest fights of his lives.

"I know but I'm sure you must remember how uncomfortable it must have been when you originally started trying to hide it away."

"Well actually I wasn't, I spent a good deal of my lives not even using Crocea Mors. So hiding a part of it never made me feel incomplete. The hardest part for me was going back to such a basic weapon after using far more powerful ones for so long."

"Wait I never considered that you are using Crocea Mors on purpose you have so much time to prepare you could use any type of weapon you want, why do you use it at this point?" Yang listened with interest wanting to understand the reasoning behind Jaune's choice.

"Really? Okay but the answer is far less profound than what your imagining I'm sure. Crocea Mors is my weapon through convenience simple as that. It costs an absurd amount of Lien to make hunter weapons and if you have a heavy Dust usage one it gets even worse."

Yang was a little disappointed with Jaunes answer but agreed that it made sense at the upgrade they put into Ember Celica was pretty minor but the price had been pretty overwhelming. Jaune had paid for that out of pocket with the money he earned before Taiyang had enrolled him into Signal.

"Have you ever tried my fighting style and Weapons? If you have I bet theirs all kinds of stuff you could teach me!" Yang asked excitedly.

"I have tried your weapons I was even pretty good or so you told me." Jaune smiled at the memory.

"Wait I taught you?"

"Of course Ruby taught me how to use my Scythe, Weiss instructed me on Dust weaponry, Nora, Ren, Blake hell pretty much you name a person at Beacon and I probably was trained by them. So no I can't really teach you anything about your fighting style I can just try and add to it on the parts you lack like your footwork." Jaune watched as Yang slowly realized that Jaune wasn't just an expert on Pyrrha's fighting style but probably most everyone at Beacon.

"So you adding kicking to my fighting style was more well thought out that just this life wasn't it, you probably give us all subtle hints each life to help us improve."

"Guilty, I have already helped Ruby to notice one of her biggest flaws already and with enough advance time that it will actually make a real difference." Jaune watched hungrily as their food arrived.

Jaune and Yang parted ways after eating Yang had to do some last minute prep that Professor Port wanted her to do and Jaune was exhausted so he went straight to his camp site to pass out but not before promising to watch all Yang's fights on his Scroll.

* * *

Jaune felt bad he had just finished watching another of Yang's fights, the last one before the final and while her opponent fought well there was a drastic void in ability between the two. Yang had plowed through this tournament as easily as she had the first. Jaune was happy to see that even if she appeared frustrated at not using her fists she was still holding that part of her fighting back.

Some of the blows he had watched Yang deliver reminded his of the acrobatic little devil Neo, Jaune was actually impressed on how well the much larger Yang managed to mimic the moves and flexibility that Neo displayed. He was confused when he didn't see anything that reminded him of Mercury but realized that in that last life Yang and Mercury never actually fought like they normally did at the Vytal Festival.

Jaune looked at Yang's opponent for the final match of the tournament and the smiled in anticipation. Jaune was glad the final fighter ended up being one of Pyrrha Nikos's fans that mimicked her weapons and fighting style. In their training Jaune could only mimic Pyrrha to an extent he wasn't as graceful or lithe so while he was an adequate substitute for a trainer in there spar's Jaune had to fight with Pyrrha's more grounded moves and could not give Yang any real training on how to deal with Pyrrha's more acrobatic attacks.

Jaune flipped through his copy of the booklet he had given Yang until he found the woman's entry. She used an almost exact copy of Milo and Akouo though her Semblance was unknown Jaune had done some digging and while he couldn't be sure he figured the girl had some form of advanced spatial awareness semblance that allowed her to keep track of anything within a certain radius of her even if she wasn't looking directly at it.

The final fight was about to start and Jaune sat back to get comfortable to watch through his Scroll.

Jaune watched as Yang rushed in and launched a series of powerful kicks that her opponent either dodged or blocked with her shield and then retaliated with a series of spear thrusts. Yang evaded the first set of thrusts and the final one she pushed away with a well-timed kick sending the girl spinning as well. Yang tried to capitalize on the spinning girl with a kick to her exposed side but at the last moment the girl brought he shield around and managed to soften the blow but she was still sent to the floor from the kick but she had at least significantly softened the blow.

 _Good move that could have ended the fight if she let Yang land that kick squarely._

The girl rolled to her feet with enough distance she switched her weapon to its rifle mode and used it to keep Yang at bay while she recovered from the blow. Yang had other plans and fought her way through the barrage of fire forcing the girl to switch her weapon back to its sword configuration. Yang could not find a way to get past the girl's shield and weapon though the girl had switched to focusing on defense not wanting to take another solid blow. Yang to her credit wasn't losing her temper and was instead of trying to land heavier blows to power through the girl's guard instead was using quicker lighter kicks to force her towards the edge of the stage where the girl would either be forced to retaliate or be knocked out of the ring.

Jaune leaned into his Scroll getting seriously impressed on how Yang was tactically cornering her opponent, It was something he had been working to teach her but so far she had not actually needed to use it as her opponents couldn't deal with her opening attacks.

Yang's had worked her opponent to the edge of the stage the girl was now not blocking attacks instead she was dodging as a solid strike through her shield would send her off the stage. Jaune could tell watching the dodging was eating away at the girl's stamina but she hadn't given up yet with a feint she rolled past one of Yang's kicks and actually ended up behind Yang reversing their rolls in an instant now Yang was on the verge of being pushed from the ring.

Jaune cringed as he watched as Yang smiled and brought her knee up to lunge forward with a very heavy kick which her opponent dodged with ease the kick being slow and obvious what wasn't obvious was the punch she threw right behind it. Yang had kicked to force the girl to either fall back giving her the room she needed to get out of position she was in or if she stayed close to cut off her escape she would end up in striking range of Yang's powerful right hook.

Yang's arm connected with the girl, no shield there to guard against the unexpected blow she fell back to the center of the stage trying to shake off the blow. Yang rushed toward her not intending to give the girl a chance to recover she sent forward a series of kicks that the staggered girl couldn't keep up with she was overwhelmed and began taking blows though not for long as after only the third kick the bell sounded signaling the end of the match the girls aura had fell into the red.

Jaune smiled, Yang showed a great deal of skill dealing with her last opponent. Anyone who watched Yang fight knew that even if she didn't use her fists that she was only doing so on purpose her stances and movements telegraphed a Boxer or Brawlers training. Still, Yang had only thrown a single punch that her opponent had no chance to avoid it was either let Yang escape with the powerful kick or try and screen and hope that she could deal with whatever Yang threw after the kick.

 _Definitely, shows that my training is working. Yang dealt with a very agile opponent even if the girl was only copying Pyrrha she had the skill to make the moves her own, I wish she lasted longer though or not have been put on the defensive so quickly._ Jaune sighed and ended the stream to his Scroll and instead looked at Yang's next competition she only had only signed up for one more before Beacon and that was a long time off. According to what Yang had told him, Professor Port had been asked multiple times from other fighters managers to fight with Yang, Pyrrha's manager being the most persistent. _I guess we could get you to take on some of those fights avoiding Pyrrha of course._

Jaune pulled out a book and started writing down plans while he waited for Yang to make it back to Patch.

* * *

 **Another one done!**

 **Work is back to its normal levels again so between work and other commitments I only managed this one chapter!**

 **Anyways Chapter is done can't say I'm 100% happy with it mostly to many character and perspective shifts but I got them out of the way so that I can focus more on Jaune and Yang for the next couple chapters (maybe a bit of Ruby it's fun writing her trying to be subtle about having a crush )**

 **Okay down to the details of going forward! For everyone asking about when we're going to see the Yang v Pyrrha showdown that's coming after the next chapter! And for everyone wanting to get to Beacon unless anything changes Initiation will begin the chapter after that.**

 **Speaking of Initiation I have two different team layouts I'm considering I won't give you the details of who's on which team but I'm sure this is obvious so send me a PM do you want Jaune and Yang on the same team or on different teams I'll take whichever team has more votes by the time I write the Initiation chapter!**


	8. Chapter 8

Jaune swiped forward with his blade followed by a heavy strike from his shield before twisting into a roll to avoid his opponents reprisal. Quickly getting to his feet Jaune brought his shield up to block a heavy punch that pushed him sliding across the ground his shoes digging into the dirt. Lancing out with his sword he felt it connect with Yang's aura preventing the blow from injuring her but taking a healthy chunk of her remaining aura. Jaune didn't stop though as Yang's Scroll didn't let out the high pitch alarm to signal she had fallen to an unsafe Aura level.

Jaune moved towards Yang who was still recovering from the blow he just paid her. Yang was dazed but still dangerous Jaune sidestepped a kick and blocked a punch with his shield, bringing his sword around to strike at Yang be was caught in the stomach by Yang's knee causing him to double over. Jaune let his body go limp and fall to the ground knowing that Yang was going to follow the surprise knee up with a blow to the side of his head. Hitting the ground Jaune rolled away while Yang's blow meant for his head whistled through the empty air.

Jaune got to his feet quickly as Yang was firing shot after shot out of Ember Celica. Jaune turtled behind his shield letting it take the brunt of the blows and letting his Aura absorb the rest rather than risking trying to escape the barrage and take a direct hit. Once Jaune felt the barrage lighten signaling Yang was about to reload he made his move rushing out of the cloud of dust and smoke Yang had kicked up with the attack. Jaune breached the cloud and couldn't spot Yang but he heard the sound of her reloading coming from inside the cloud. _Clever using it chip away at my aura as well as cover to reload so I can't retaliate._

Backing away from the cloud Jaune entered into the tree line to screen himself from the next volley. Jaune knew she had the range advantage and wouldn't be baited into entering the tree's to look for him which was why he had quickly moved around the perimeter of the clearing while the smoke hide them from each other. Jaune was already in a full sprint as the last of the smoke faded away as he expected Yang was still focused in the direction he had been earlier. Still he was making enough noise running that she turned to face him but with his momentum Yang only got off a couple of clumsy shots before Jaune was in swinging again. Jaune pushed hard cutting past Yang's guard scoring several minor hits to chip away at her already badly damaged Aura.

Jaune was pushed back as Yang fired recklessly towards the ground to separate them. The distance between them was minor and Jaune didn't want her to widen if so he rushed forward with is shield up letting it take the shots. Jaune could barely feel his shield arm from the sustained volley he took earlier and now these close range blasts he knew he wouldn't be able to keep up his guard much longer. Jaune closed with Yang throwing in is shield arm in first watching her dodge it easily and was responding with a much more powerful strike of he own that never connected as Yang doubled over in pain as Jaune landed a knee into Yang's exposed side which would have sent her sprawling to the ground but Jaune heard her Scroll signal Aura lose so he caught her before she fell and helped her to stand.

Jaune helped Yang settle down on a soft patch of grass under the shade of a tree and couldn't help but smile. Time had spun by so quickly Yang's third Tournament had come and gone and there was only a year left before Beacon would start.

 _Yang's progress has been Phenomenal recently she went from almost unable to touch my Aura to now._ Jaune looked at his own Scroll. _Knocking me dangerously low into Yellow myself all in a span of these last few months._ Jaune settled down beside Yang and he removed his armguard that hid his shield wincing as he undid the last strap letting it slide off his arm on to the ground. With the heavy weight gone his arm felt more comfortable but he still knew even with his Aura repairing the damage, his arm was going to be useless for a day or two.

Across from him Yang stirred awake on reflex she spun to her feet and readied for an attack it was only after she had looked around for a second that she collapsed back down to the ground and performed the action to put Ember Celica in its compact mode.

"How close was I this time?" Yang asked the same question she had from the end of every spar they had done for weeks.

"Your best yet." Jaune flashed her a look at his Scroll showing her how low he currently was.

"Any advice this time?" Yang smiled as she watched Jaune put his Scroll away.

"Overall no I can't criticize you anymore if you were fighting Pyrrha right now instead of me I would put you two as an even match. Though that's not factoring in each of your Semblances. If were talking about raw staying power and endurance the fights no competition you win hands down but Pyrrha's Semblance brings it back to an even playing field she can alter your aim causing you to wildly miss shots or subtly make your punchs be just a little to short. Honestly Yang, there is nothing more we can do. I had hoped that I could push you to the next level make you eclipse Pyrrha and if I had more time I could but unfortunately time is something we are running out of." Jaune grimaced at the truth of his words no matter how much time he had there was never enough he was always forced to make concessions help one person another suffers he had learnt long ago to live with the concequeces.

"So this is it all this time training and the best you can give me is a fifty/fifty shot at winning? That hardly seems fair." Yang pouted a bit.

"Well, maybe not quite fifty/fifty, you know her Semblance and her fighting style. Let's give you sixty/forty odds, does that make you feel better?" Jaune asked with a wry smile.

"Hardly, I can't even beat you and you even said it yourself you never beat Pyrrha without her going easy on you, and if she went easy on me I don't think I have the proper equipment to handle what comes after her going easy on me would mean." Yang smiled as Jaune's face started to discolor. "Plus assuming half of what Port tells me Pyrrha's manager is calling daily at this point to try and get a match so the odds of her holding back anything is probably zero!" Yang laid back on the soft grass letting her muscle's relax.

"Yeah, you're not wrong! I knew she was always desiring an equal as a guy I elicited the wrong response from her being her equal made me desirable to her honestly I think Pyrrha might just have a thing for tall awkward blondes, who knows if you beat her you meet most of that criteria your tall blonde and I bet if Pyrrha started making advances on you-you could be just as awkward as the master!" Jaune pointed his thumb in his direction as he watched Yang hide her face with her arms.

"Eww Jaune I don't like girls like that." Yang defended herself behind her arms her cheeks were turning bright red.

"Well, then I guess you better start practicing being less awkward then cause the display you are putting on right now would have Pyrrha throwing herself at you I'm sure."Jaune laughed out loud he so rarely turned the tables on Yang like this that he couldn't help but laugh uproariously.

"It's not nice to pick on a delicate girl like me Jaune you should feel ashamed." Yang tried to fight back her pride wouldn't let her take the abuse.

"Oh? Should I feel ashamed? I remember a few things about you. You-you not from any other life but just from our last." Jaune lowered his voice and leaned in close teasing Yang with his closeness.

"Oh, you do remember that?" Yang leaned in as well. "Here I was thinking since you never spoke of it that I wasn't all that memorable." Yang watched as Jaune's face started to redden.

"Ah no, what of course you were memorable." Jaune backpedaled away from Yang he had pushed his luck with the teasing and now Yang had the upper hand. "Fine, fine I give you win your still the best." Jaune knew he couldn't win this fight, he had his laugh and pushed his luck and lost.

"Damn straight it was memorable!" Yang said with finality. Yang watched as Jaune gathered up his armguard and other gear preparing to head back into town for the day when he had gathered everything he moved back to sit beside her waiting for her to feel ready to move.

 _I should ask him. We were together before. It's not like he pretends it didn't happen._ Yang looked up at Jaune watching him smile as he looked over his armguard. _No, I won't ask him not yet anyways I'm happy with this._

Jaune felt Yang move beside him and looked to see her getting to her feet. Jaune did likewise and as they moved together towards Patch Jaune caught a glimpse of Yang's personal smile the one he rarely ever saw only when Yang spoke about Ruby. _Huh wonder why she's smiling like that?_

* * *

Qrow couldn't find Yang on Jaune, not that he bothered to spend much time trying anyone after so many months Qrow had all but given up trying to keep track of where the two would disappear to. The would vanish for a few hours then would appear back in Patch at the same restaurant every time usually looking like they had been through one hell of a fight. Ruby would join them for lunch most days her afternoon lesson finished in time for her to catch the two as they would be reaching the restaurant. They would eat talk and laugh and then Yang and Ruby would go home Jaune would go to his campsite and write more in his journal and nothing would happen for a couple days and then Yang and Jaune would disappear again. _  
_

 _It's so god damn methodical that its painful to keep track of._ Qrow sat inside the restaurant knowing that sooner or later Jaune and Yang would enter maybe accompanied by Ruby maybe not. He didn't wait long as the door opened and he saw the two familiar blondes enter, he was glad to see that Ruby hadn't made it this time. He had sat back so that Jaune and Yang wouldn't see him from the outside window and also was hidden from them as they entered inside once they had been seated Qrow stood and walked pointedly towards them. He smiled as he saw Yang spot him and her eyes went wide in shock before she masked that with a more natural look and waved him over invitingly.

Qrow sat down next to Jaune forcing him to sit against the wall and making it so that he had no way to escape without going through him. "Well back from your daily training so did my niece manage to beat you yet?"

"I'm not sure what you mean Yang trains me, Sir." Jaune replied defensively.

"Cut the bullshit kid!" Qrow glowered menacingly at Jaune after so long Qrow had finally lost his patience with this whole assignment. "You are paranoid and clever but you are also inconsistent. Between the two of you, I might not have the entire picture but I have enough to know that Yang's sudden increase in skill is your doing." Qrow motions towards Jaune and when Jaune made no rebuttal that confirmed it to Qrow at least on that fact. "You also have been giving Ruby subtle hints to correct flaws in her training." Again Jaune didn't move to correct him. "

Jaunes mind raced. _What the hell is this? Why now? This is so far out of character for Qrow!_ Jaune's mind was overwhelmed with the blunt and direct Qrow that he sat there speechless.

"Don't try and think your way out of this kid! There isn't a damn thing in Remnant you could say that wouldn't sound suspicious to me. My Nieces trust you, you have helped Ruby correct multiple flaws in her training that I was probably the reason they existed in the first place, and Yang, I don't know what your relationship is with her but I feel she probably knows whatever secret your trying to keep and if she feels safe around you and more importantly shes not trying to keep her sister away from you-you are not a threat!" Qrow stood and was about to take his leave when a look from Yang made him pause.

"Sir, your right I am training Yang and she does know my secret, I wish I could share my secret with more people but that has not worked well for me in the past. I hope I never do anything to wrong either of your nieces." Jaunes mind was at war with itself part of it wanted to warn Crow about events that were about to happen but the other part fought down the urge being a skilled fighter and being acknowledged as such is one thing but talking about people and powers he should have no knowledge of was another thing, in the end, he said nothing and watched Qrow leave.

"Well, that was tense," Yang spoke breaking the silence. "Does that mean he's done trying to spy on us?"

"Probably, I bet he's off to talk to Ozpin... Should I have said something Yang? Never before have I seen Qrow act this way though I have never interacted with you or Ruby this much in my past repeats either. It's so strange seeing a person behave so contrary to everything I know about them." Jaune slouched into his seat.

"What could you say? You have impressed on me that any future knowledge we have should not be shared, you have even given me enough examples of how badly that has worked against you in the past." Yang grimaced at the reminder of what Jaune told her he experienced on some of the lives he had tried to share his knowledge directly. "No, we stick to the plan we decided on and deal with the whatever comes our way."

Jaune looked thoughtfully at Yang and laughed inwardly at how the roles of this conversation were reversed for the first time ever. "I'm glad you have been listening at least right now to talk me out of doing something stupid."

Jaune and Yang settled into more easy to discuss topics over there meal deciding on there next training day and also plans of when to give Port the go ahead to arrange the fight. Both of them figured that if there mas no more progress to be made that they might as well get it over and done with so Yang would contact Port to arrange the fight in the next couple of months but would make the demand that the fight had to happen in Vale, Jaune wanted to be able to be in attendance. eventually they parted ways with Yang all there plans made for the next few days.

* * *

Qrow stood across from Ozpin having just given his last report in person and was waiting for a response.

"Qrow, I'm not sure why you felt the need to come here from Patch to give me this report personally." Ozpin stared at the man across from him setting his cup down. "Though if I had to guess you are going to ask me to be done with my investigation of Jaune and your niece?" He knew that's what Qrow really was here about and he could not blame the man he had been watching the two for a considerable amount of time and found nothing outside of facts that they had deduced early on.

Jaune was training Yang that much was obvious and she was trusted enough to know whatever secret Jaune was keeping. Jaune had also apparently helped Yang's sister Ruby with several flaws in her fighting style. That was it, after all this time that's really all they figured out about the young man.

"Do you truly feel that there is no risk in letting Jaune be free without observation?"

"I do Oz, I have seen him around my nieces and I'm positive that if either of them were to be in harm's way even if it meant Jaunes life that he would do everything in his power to spare them. More than that I feel that Yang at least would do the same for Jaune." Qrow had watched them enough that while they might not be in a relationship in a physical sense the two had a very deep bond.

"Alright between Taiyang and your reports and you're vouching for the young man I feel confident that we can stop observing him would you please pass that message along to Taiyang?"

"Sure Oz, I can do that." Qrow sighed with relief as he turned to leave as he reached the door Qrow heard an urgent voice behind him.

"Ozpin! Amber is missing she missed her rendezvous with her escort detail." James Ironwood sounded almost distressed or a distressed as a stuffy Atlas General could sound. "My soldiers report that she was last seen two days ago in the town her escort was supposed to meet with her in."

"James this is hardly new behavior for Amber she is young and headstrong but she is more than capable of handling herself." Ozpin leaned back, it was true Amber very much disliked all the security and attention she was given and has struck out on her own enough times that Ozpin didn't feel too concerned.

"I know that I wouldn't be so worried normally but if my soldier's report is accurate the route she choose to travel leads her into an area with heavy White Fang activity and to make matters worse there have been reports that Adam Taurus was spotted in the area recently."

Ozpin sat up he was clearly disturbed by this news he looked over to the door to his office glad that Qrow hadn't left. "Qrow?"

"I'm on it have Jimmy send the location and all information to my scroll!" with that Qrow left the office with a great deal of haste heading towards Beacons Bullhead dock knowing Ozpin would have a pilot and shit ready for him before he got there.

* * *

Yang sat alone in her dressing room adjusting Ember Celica for what felt like the hundredth time even though it was already sitting comfortably in place. Taiyang and Port stood near the doorway Port talking animated about something and Taiyang feigning paying attention to the man's story. Yang smiled knowing her father was suffering on her behalf to give her a few private moments before having to head to the fighting stage.

Yang pulled out her scroll contemplating calling Jaune, but knew that would be pointless he was somewhere in the crowd and doubted by the muffled noise she was hearing from her dressing room that he would even notice his scroll over the noise. Instead Yang put her scroll away and adjusted Ember Celica again trying to mentally prepare for the coming fight while thinking of the last two months of training she did with Jaune.

Yang had become frustrated towards the end of the training every time she thought she had the upper hand Jaune would change his tactics and win only by the narrowest of margins but he would still beat her. Even after she had started using her Semblance she couldn't manage to win though Yang smiled at the memory it had forced him to stop using Pyrrha's fighting style and use what Yang assumed was Jaune's own personal style. It hadn't been a win but it was a small victory none the less.

Pyrrha's style still heavily influenced Jaune's own personal style but there were noticeable differences Jaune relied far less on his shield letting his Aura absorb more damage but allowing him to move faster and hit harder. Even with her Semblance she struggled to fight Jaune to a standstill she quickly learned to not lot Jaune in close without his shield being deployed and using both hands for his blade Jaune was a frightening opponent in melee he seemed to score multiple blows in seconds so fast that Yang hadn't even noticed until her Scroll had gone off signalling Aura lose.

Yang watched the door to her room open and a person she recognized as one of the fight organizers entered the room and spoke with Port and Taiyang. Yang stood knowing this meant that it was almost time to head to the stage.

"Are you ready Yang? You look more nervous than I think I have ever seen you be before!" Taiyang motioned to his daughter's hand which was adjusting Ember Celica again.

"Preposterous that's just thorough preparation making sure one's weapons are properly secured before a fight." Port smiled warmly, for some reason it had a calming effect for Yang she was definitely still nervous but she actually managed to move her hands to her sides and stop fiddling with her weapon.

Taiyang watched this and smiled at his daughter and Port happy that the man either of purpose or accident had lifted at least some concern from his daughters face.

"I'm alright dad or as alright as anyone can be going to fight someone heralded as 'The invincible Girl'!" Yang shook her head at the title she knew many people called Pyrrha Nikos a title if things went according to plan Yang might be the new holder of soon.

"Pah in an hour from now you will hold that title," Port spoke aloud her own thoughts. "Between your father's training and 'MY' tactical expertise Ms. Nikos will stand no chance against you." Port smiled broadly both Tai and Yang saw that he was about to launch into one of his speeches but Tai leap to there defense quickly rushing the man out of the room under the pretense of wanting to have a last minute word with his daughter.

"What a load of hot air," Taiyang smirked as he turned to his daughter. "Port might be an exceptional Huntsman but tactics, hah I sure a Beowulf out thinks him most days." Taiyang watched as his daughter smiled glad to see more of her nervousness leave.

"Thanks, Dad and I mean that more than just saving us from another of Ports stories!"

"So are you ready for this? If you want we can still back you out of this." Taiyang knew his daughter answer but as a concerned father he couldn't help but ask he was just glad that this daughter opponent was Pyrrha Nikos he had briefly met with the girl and found her charming, polite and surprisingly gentle for someone who fights constantly. Taiyang could easily she Pyrrha and Yang being good friends in the future Yang would be attending Beacon next year and if the rumors were true Pyrrha was set to enroll there as well.

"Heh, Thanks, dad but no I'm doing this just imagine what I would have to put up with at Beacon next year if I backed out of this fight." Yang stepped up beside her father letting him open the door for her as Port and the fight organizer stood waiting outside to lead them to the stage.

They were led through a seeming maze of doors and hallways until finally, they stood aside a curtain that would take Yang directly to the stage. Yang listened to the commentator as they went through a script about sponsors of the event and the results of the match that had just finished. Yang sighed in relief she was glad this event wasn't entirely built around her fight with Pyrrha it was actually tacked on to another event already happening in Vale that neither Pyrrha or herself had entered and now they were more of an exhibition match between the semi-finals and finale.

The curtain parted and a large man who looked thoroughly exhausted and using a polearm as support moved past her group followed by several people that appeared to be in fairly high spirits apparently the man was the victor of the last fight and would be moving on to the finals.

Shortly after the man and his entourage were out of sight an announcement played out signaling Pyrrha Nikos had entered the arena. Yang's escort quickly gave her some last minute instructions that Yang only half heard over the noise coming from the other side of the curtain but nodded she understood whatever the man was trying to tell her after that, the curtain parted and she was led forward to the stage.

Yang walked forward eyes taking in the crowd awed by the amount of people here easily doubling probably tripling any of the tournaments she had participated in. Scanning the crowd she tried to find where Jaune and her sister were sitting but couldn't find them instead she focused on the stage and her waiting opponent.

Yang watched Pyrrha standing on the stage a man beside her that from appearances could easily be Pyrrha's father he was speaking to Pyrrha and she was listening intently to whatever the man was saying. Yang reached the stage and climbed the steps leading up to stand across from Pyrrha.

Eventually there were only three people left on the stage Yang stood only a few feet apart from Pyrrha, both were listening to the faux referee on the rules of there fight Yang knew them by heart which probably meant Pyrrha had heard them enough times that she could recite them off better than the referee that was stumbling through the explanation probably feeling very crowded by the very clearly excited Ms. Nikos.

Finally, the Faux Referee left the stage with the instruction that the fight would start after a thirty-second countdown.

"Good luck to you!" Pyrrha called out no malice or taunting in her voice she was as always genuine with her words even as she took a stance that Yang was all too familiar with.

"Right back at you." Yang replied trying to keep her voice even as she was shaking a little for nervousness and excitement. _Finally, after all this time, I can see if all this work has paid off!_

Near them, a large clock began to silently count down. Pyrrha quietly waited holding her stance and her eyes showed excitement but also a clear focus. Yang stood at her start location and watched the clock only when it reached the last few seconds did she adopt her stance as the timer ticked to one she performed the action to deploy Ember Celica, the gauntlets expanded quickly and as the timer hit zero and the bell chimed Yang began.

* * *

 **Hey, look at that a quick update!**

 **Not really much to say here I guess I can expect some criticism on Jaune being stronger than Yang even when she's using her Semblance! It why I added a few extra lines in the story that I was going to ignore until further down the road. Jaune is a very capable fighter at this point in his life all of his most recent deaths have not been to a single combatant his deaths generally fall into a category of sacrificing himself to save one of his remaining friends or too defeated by a great many opponents eventually wearing him down.**

 **I have been considering adding extra content at the end of chapters kind of like how I did in Chapter three with the Flashback of Jaunes memories If that's something you might enjoy let me know I have a couple ideas on them but I'm not sure I want to spend the time on them without at least knowing the time won't be wasted.**

 **Anyways hope you enjoyed the chapter now I'm going to begin writing a fight scene!**


	9. Chapter 9

Yang sprinted forward meeting Pyrrha in the center of the stage, Yang ducked a Jab from Pyrrha's spear while lashing out with a kick which Pyrrha sidestepped grabbing Yangs leg and twisting. Yang lept with her remaining leg in the direction Pyrrha was twisting catching her off guard and glancing a blow off Pyrrha's shoulder causing her to release Yang's leg and take a step back.

Yang rolled away from Pyrrha and spun to her feet quickly charging towards Pyrrha again, launching a fury of punch's which Pyrrha met with her shield blocking them all before responding with a sword thrust which Yang batted away only to be confronted Pyrrha's knee streaking towards her face. Yang couldn't fully evade the blow but she moved to minimize the impact it would have. Yang retreated backward while bending her back the knee only lightly grazed her scalp.

Yang punched up toward the airborne Pyrrha and connected with one of her legs throwing off her landing, Yang spun quickly hoping to land another hit as Pyrrha landed but instead was forced to avoid Pyrrha's shield she had thrown to avoid Yang capitalizing on a poor landing. Yang watched the shield fly past her knowing it was only a matter of time before Pyrrha would recover it, not wanting Pyrrha to have an easy to manipulate metal disk behind her Yang backed behind the shield and waited for Pyrrha to notice where she was standing and that her shield was in front of her.

Yang watched as Pyrrha's sword rapidly morphed into a rifle and she opened fire on Yang, Yang reached down and scooped up the shield using it to absorb the blows from the rifle. Yang felt the barrage stop almost instantly and looked over top the shield she had appropriated to see Pyrrha lung in hard with her spear striking fiercely with a great degree of accuracy. Yang blocked haphazardly with the shield for the first few strikes before tossing the shield aside and instead using her arms to deflect the jabs and thrusts in a way she was more accustomed to.

Yang had thrown the shield to her side away from herself and Pyrrha or meant to but the weapon left her hand earlier than she intended and instead looked like she had thrown it at Pyrrha's head the girl casually caught the shield and slid it back onto her arm in one fluid movement. _Well, that was obvious!_ Yang took advantage of the brief delay in spear thrusts and leap towards Pyrrha she began firing with Ember Celica catching Pyrrha by surprise and she took two heavy shots at close range but quickly recovered creating a wide gap in space between the two.

Yang circled with Pyrrha she didn't dare look away to check remaining Aura instead she just kept staring at Pyrrha who's eyes were alight with enjoyment she looked like she was having the time of her life.

Yang stopped circling instead she started to creep forwards towards Pyrrha who also began to move in, once they were within only a few feet from each other Yang watched Pyrrha explode with energy her sword and shield were all over the place, Yang could barely keep up managing to deflect or dodge the barrage of attacks but still feeling her aura taking hits from the attacks she wasn't seeing. Yang stumbled back from the melee firing a couple shots at the ground to prevent Pyrrha from following.

Yang heard the sound of Pyrrha's weapon changing forms and immediately began to run using her gauntlets to propel herself forward with increased speed to evade the shots from Pyrrha's weapon. The move caught the girl off guard and Yang had closed in with Pyrrha again before she could alter her weapon back to one of its melee forms, Yang came in swinging forcing Pyrrha to block her initial powerful attack not having the time to dodge, The strength of the blow pushed Pyrrha back several feet but gave her no reprieve as Yang was right there with her continuing the assault.

Yang knew her shot limit and knew she was getting close to needing to reload but doubted with Pyrrha's skill she would be given the opportunity, Instead Yang stopped firing conserving the ammunition she had, instead she started to throw her normal punch's and kicks again. Yang felt the battle shift instantly no longer feeling the sting of explosions behind Yangs attacks Pyrrha was on the offensive once again. Yang struggled to evade all the quick sword strikes as well as the ever-present shield that was there to hit her is she wasn't careful to account for where she was standing.

Gradually Yang became accustomed to Pyrrha's speed and the blows that felt so unmanageably fast moments earlier now while fast she became accustomed to the pattern it being one that Jaune had worked into her memory after months of repeated use. Yang lowered her stance and blocked the next strike, she stepped into the next swing making Pyrrha's next thrust whistle harmlessly past her side, Yang ducked the shield that she knew would be coming feeling it sail past her ducked head Yang stuck forward with Ember Celica connecting with Pyrrha's stomach and firing a round as well to make the blow even more telling.

Yang watched as Pyrrha backpedaled across the stage reeling from the blow and shock that her moves seemed to be read so perfectly. Yang considered pushing her advantage but opted for the break as a moment to catch her breath as she was breathing quite hard and looking at Pyrrha she was experiencing the same panting quite heavily.

After a scant moment, Yang was forced to dodge as Pyrrha's closed the distance and began launching rapid attacks with her spear using the rifle mechanism to accelerate the attacks. Yang tried to push past the spear to force Pyrrha to switch back to using the sword but couldn't make it past the rapid attacks, instead she was pushed back the spear was too precise in blocking her Yang knew that Pyrrha was subtly manipulating it to keep the distance where she could strike but Yang couldn't retaliate without using precious ammunition.

 _She's just going to wear me down if I cannot get past her spear and Semblance._ Yang took mental stock of how many shots she had fired knowing that her left gauntlet have six shots left while her right had only one. Yang altered he stance putting hit right arm forward and standing sideways to make herself a smaller target then Yang waited weaving to avoid spear thrusts or batting away ones she couldn't with her arm.

Yang didn't wait long Pyrrha realized her strategy was no longer working and was just causing her fatigue, as soon as Pyrrha stopped Yang moved firing a shot with her left gauntlet causing her to close the gap between them instantly. Yang felt resistance her arms felt slow and heavy, Yang kicked hard letting her hands deal with guarding while she sent kicks towards Pyrrha, the kicks caused Pyrrha to lose focus on manipulating her Semblance and Yang felt her arms lighten slightly but could still tell that she didn't have full control. This was made more apparent when her left gauntlet fired off three rounds wildly sending Yang crashing to the ground with the unexpected discharges.

Yang rolled to her feet and fired her last few shots not wanting to let Pyrrha waste them, Yang followed the attacks in striking Pyrrha's shield focusing heavily on repeatedly sticking the shield the powerful blows driving Pyrrha back gradually. Yang ducked Pyrrha's sword and kept hammer blows directly into the shield, she knew from experience fighting Jaune that he could barely move his shield arm towards the end of there spars and Yang was hoping that proved the same with Pyrrha.

Yang winced as Pyrrha broke away from her escaping with a kick to Yang's face followed with a leap to add more distance, moving in Yang pushed forward with her assault continuing to hammer the shield watching Pyrrha begin to cringe from every blow but stubbornly keeping the shield up while attacking with her sword for many long minutes the two locked in combat chipping away at the others Aura's.

Yang was about to strike Pyrrha's shield again but her arm was forced down, Pyrrha had stopped trying to be discreet with her Semblance and while the audience probably didn't notice anything Yang knew that Ember Celica was no longer under her control. As Yang slid towards the ground she rolled her body bringing both her legs down on top of Pyrrha, not in any form of strike, but to catch her off guard with the motion. Yang ended up half under and half on top of Pyrrha as they collapsed into each other and ended up in a heap on the stage.

Yang struggled to free herself as Pyrrha did likewise in short order the two were standing again looking quite disheveled but resumed their stances and prepared to resume there fight. Yang had gotten a quick look at the large monitor as they extracted themselves from each other and both of them were critically low on Aura not so much that a single blow would finish either of them but enough that the fight wouldn't last past the next confrontation.

Yang stood across from Pyrrha who was smiling brightly her eyes flashing with an unabashed excitement.

Yangs eye's flash as well turning from Lilac to a Crimson Red a wave of heat rolled off her body. Yang felt the fatigue from the fight melt away her Semblance allowing her to ignore the exhaustion she was feeling as well as giving her a powerful boost of strength. Yang made her way across the stage she still needed to be careful. Yang launched into her attack and Pyrrha met it in kind her shield or blade always managing to be there to block or bat away a punch or kick.

Yang knew that Pyrrha was using her Semblance as her shield was moving faster than her arm and Pyrrha noticeably winced every time the shield moved but made no face when the punch landed on the shield.

Yang felt her arms grow sluggish like she was trying to punch underwater, without her Semblance enhancing her strength Yang doubted she would even be able to move her arms at all the fact that she still had mobility even as reduced as it was was the the first time Yang noticed an expression change by Pyrrha it had been brief but her eyes showed a moments shock that was quickly replaced by the excited look Pyrrha had worn the rest of the match.

Yang could feel her arms growing heavier and slower as Pyrrha focused more on controlling her Semblance, Jaune had told her that Pyrrha the more she focused the greater her control became but it also forced Pyrrha to become stationary to maintain that level of focus. Yang was glad Jaune told her that as across from her Pyrrha was standing still she was in a stance ready to attack or defend but she was no longer moving.

Yang kept her arms up fighting the downward pull she was feeling coming from Ember Celica as Pyrrha tired to force the weapons down. Yang briefly considered using the extra function Jaune had convinced her to add to her weapon but knew that against Pyrrha's Semblance if would not work, instead Yang kept moving towards Pyrrha but for every step she took the force on her arms became worse, eventually Yang stood only a few feet from Pyrrha but even with her Semblance enhancing her strength it took everything Yang had to remain standing even as Ember Celica was being forced down.

Muscles bunching and bulging Yang stuck forward with a very clumsy blow, it did no real damage but pushed Pyrrha out of whatever focused state she was in and Yang well the weight disappear in an instant. Quickly wheeling around Yang threw a backhanded blow which stuck Pyrrha's shield but it was followed with a kick and a straight right the kick landing on Pyrrha's thigh taking her down to her knees and the right drove straight into Pyrrha's surprised face.

Yang was exhausted fighting Pyrrha's Semblance had taken everything from her and even with her own Semblance activated Yang's arms dropped to her sides after she had unleashed her last few attacks. Yang waited for the alarm to sound signaling Pyrrha had dropped into the red and Yang was the winner and when she finally looked to see why the huge monitor at the side of the arena still showed Pyrrha to have the smallest of slivers of Aura remaining and true to what the board read Pyrrha was shakily making her way back to her feet.

Yang frantically brought her weapons in front of her undoing the fastener that secured the weapons to her arms.

* * *

Pyrrha stood shakily she was exhausted, bruised and disoriented but she was having the time of her life, getting her bearing Pyrrha had expected the fight to be over but realized the stage had yet to be flooded with people ready to care for the fighters instead Pyrrha stood alone across from her opponent.

 _Yang Xaio Long,_ Pyrrha stood finally noticing the screen that still showed her having acceptable Aura to continue fighting. _This isn't over yet!_ Pyrrha smiled, excitement taking the ache out of her body she knew that it wouldn't last but for a few more moments she would get to fight her peer and that was enough. Pyrrha began to charge closing the ground she hurled her shield before her only to have her opponent dodge out of the way and continue to divest herself of her weapons.

Pyrrha considered using her Semblance but knew that she would not be able to maintain the concentration needed especially if Yang could fight against it like she had already then it would just be giving her the win instead Pyrrha pulled her shield back to her and swung her blade, Yang was being evasive though retreating from the the attacks while undoing her weapons after a few more attacks Pyrrha watched as the weapons fell to the ground and Yang spun to face her.

Pyrrha watched as her opponents eyes faded back to lilac and the heat she seemed to emanate fade away but also her opponent seemed to sag downwards apparently whatever her Semblance was it didn't repair the damage but more allowed her to ignore it somehow.

Launching forward Pyrrha lashed out with her spear hoping to catch Yang as her fatigue was hitting her but Yang was still with it enough to dodge, Pyrrha struck multiple times but no blow was landed every attack was dodged, Pyrrha noticed to late that the attackes weren't just being dodged but they were being read and Yang was now underneath her own guard she looked down and saw the fist the would end this fight a split second before it hit her.

* * *

She had done it! Yang could barely stand, the last of her adrenaline bled from her as she struck Pyrrha knocking her unconcious but she herself was out of energy after landing the blow Yangs legs had given out and she had collapsed beside Pyrrha. She was standing now barely, mostly thanks to her sister Ruby who had appeared after the fight was finished and now would not let go of her Ruby was firmly attached to her side acting as a sort of bracer for her that helped support her shakey legs. Behind Ruby had come Taiyang and Port, Yang had wanted to asked Ruby where Jaune was but saw him standing at the edge of the stage the look on his face was a mixture of admiration, pride and relief.

Yang waved to Jaune, hoping to get him to come onto the stage she knew no one would protest even her father had become far more social towards him since that day at the diner where Qrow had confronted them. However if Jaune saw the gesture she wasn't sure as she was pulled aside by an organizer and moved to the center of the stage where the announcer was rambling on about something about the fight, Yang didn't care to listen she was exhausted and just wanted to lie down.

Across from her, Pyrrha was being tended to by the man she had seen earlier before the match started being closer Yang was certain the man was Pyrrha's father he fawned over Pyrrha with the same concern Taiyang was to her though Yang was at least being shielded from the ministration by her sister.

Eventually after what seemed like hours but in reality was only a few minutes Yang was led through the curtain she had entered from and led back through the maze of corridors back to her dressing room, the trip took longer because her entourage kept being delayed by reporters wanting to talk to her which were politely turned away by Taiyang and when that didn't work Port made it clear that they weren't going to speak with her at this time.

Reaching her room she entered to find a Physician waiting to give her a checkup to make sure her Aura had protected her, and no real damage had been sustained after a short examination where nothing unusual was discovered he excused himself.

"Remnant to Yang, stop spacing out." Ruby looked at Yang with concern having been asking her sister questions and now noticing Yang hadn't answered a single one.

"Ruby leave your sister alone shes exhausted and the minds always a little fuzzy after a fight that intense." Taiyang stepped in between his two daughters.

Ruby lowered her head and mumbled an apology.

"It's alright Rubes I was kinda spacing out," Yang spoke as she laid down on a bench before sitting bolt upright. "EMBER CELICA I need to..." she stopped speaking when she noticed Taiyang was holding her weapons.

"I was wondering when you would remember you stripped off your weapons during the fight. Why did you do that anyways?" Taiyang set the weapon down on a chair while waiting for his daughters answer.

"I, uh, think Pyrrha has a Semblance that let her control's metal. My arms kept feeling strange during the fight like they were really heavy or that I was swinging a little too fast or slow at times." Yang didn't bother to cover up that knowledge with a lie she didn't have the energy to think of a different reason.

"Is that why you didn't bother reloading?" Ruby questioned.

"Pretty much, Ember Celica isn't the easiest weapon to reload in a fight but when she forced my weapon to fire I knew that even trying would be a waste as she would just be able to cause my weapon to do as much harm to me as it would do to her." Yang sat thoughtfully it was something that Jaune had never brought up but now that fight made it painfully obvious that Ember Celica had another flaw while her shots were terrifying in power the reload was a serious drawback she wondered why Jaune hadn't made any suggestion to change that. Yang decided that she would ask Jaune that the next chance she had.

* * *

Yang was being led through the maze of tunnels again this time to leave the event there guide had picked a better path this time and there were no news people jumping out of corrodors trying to get an interview. They had almost reached the exit when a famaliar figure stood waiting for them.

"Greetings Ms. Xaio Long. I am Hectur Nikos, my daughter has asked of me to see if you would be interested in a private meeting between the two of you before you take your leave this evening?" Hectur stood formally but his Emerald eyes showed a soft expression that made the man seem very kind even if his outward appearance would leave most people intimidated by the seemingly formal and strict looking man.

All eyed turned to Yang waiting for her response even Port who had been very forceful at turning away the press he even stood in check waiting to see what Yang would decide to do.

"I guess I could.." Yang saw the man's expression harden somewhat at her unsure answer. " I mean I would be delighted...? to speak with Ms. Nikos... uh provided the meeting will not take long." Yang sighed in relief as the man's expression softened somewhat again.

"If I may guide you, my daughter is nearby, normally she would not send me for this task, she would do it herself but she is still recovering from the fight." Hectur led them down a short hallway to a room filled with fighters that were recovering from their bouts. After a brief word with a doctor Hectur took a step back and Yang was pointed in the direction of Pyrrha's bed which she proceeded to alone her father Hectur remaining behind.

Yang neared the curtained bed not really sure what to say, in her past life she would consider Pyrrha a friend not a close one by any means but still a friend taking a deep breath she pushed past the separating curtain and was greeted with a smiling Pyrrha who much like herself was sporting an exhausted look and more that a few bruises.

"Ms. Xaio Long thank you so much for meeting me!" Pyrrha stood to greet her guest even if the motion of standing made her wince and sway slightly.

"Um, should you be standing already?" Yang asked concerned and moving forward to lend aid if Pyrrha's shaking legs gave out on her.

"No, no I probably shouldn't but I both didn't want to be rude and not doing so would be a mark of disrespect to a fellow fighter and victor. Ms. Xaio Long I..."

Yang interrupted quickly "Please call me Yang and before you tell me that's improper or some such nonsense I don't care I am not Ms. Xaio Long I'm just Yang."

Pyrrha smiled brightly. "Alright, Yang." Pyrrha seemed uncomfortable saying her name like that almost alien. "I want to thank you for giving me such a great fight. I hope in the future we might have another chance to do so again preferably with less of an audience as well."

Yang was surprised the way Pyrrha spoke it sounded not like she disliked the crowd but rather found it burdensome to have her fighting watched. "I would like that also, but I don't think it will happen anytime soon. This was my last fight I'm using the remainder of my time to finish my studies at Signal before attending Beacon so our rematch will have to wait a long time I suspect." Yang talked around her future knowledge, she knew that Pyrrha would attend Beacon but that news as far as either her or Jaune could remember was never made public to anyone until shortly before enrollment cutoff a few weeks before initiation.

"You are going to be attending Beacon!" Pyrrha's smile widened even further if that was possible. "That's wonderful I had decided myself to attend Beacon earlier as well so we may get to have more than just a fight we might even be on the same team." Pyrrha winced mentally, her father had informed her that all four academies for huntsmen had four man teams but he also told her that it wasn't public knowledge to most even if there were a great deal of rumors stating that.

"That's great I will see you at Beacon then but I really must be going have a great night Pyrrha." Yang left waving her goodbye to Pyrrha who returned it in kind before leaving the curtain saw Pyrrha lie down again with her ever-present smile.

* * *

Jaune watched idly from a distance as Yang was once again surrounded by her groupies. The group, the largest it had ever been everyone at Signal had seen her fight and between people lining up for autographs or to have Yang tell them first hand how the fight went Jaune didn't bother to approach her instead he just got comfy at a safe distance and pulled out a book and began reading.

It was a history book one that he had never seen before buried in an archive in Signal a place he never had a lot of time to dig through in past lives. The book did not contain much new information that he hadn't read elsewhere but there were a few mentions of events that he didn't know about nothing terribly important but at this point Jaune cherished any new information he came across even if it was trivial in the grand scheme of things. Eventually, after reading the thick book for awhile Yang managed to excuse herself from the crowd of people and came to sit beside Jaune. The other students at Beacon having learned that this was sign that she wanted to be left alone and everyone knew better than to try and butt their way into whatever the two would talk about as it would normally end up with Jaune politely excusing himself and Yang glaring angrily at the intruder before leaving herself.

"So what are you reading today it looks thick and boring?" Yang eyed the tome Jaune was casually leafing through with a bored expression.

"Oh, nothing much just an old history book from a bit before the Great War its a volume I have never seen before and has some extra information but overall nothing important." Jaune closed the book after marking his page. Even if it didn't contain new information it was well written and told the story of the time before better than any previous book he had read yet and given time he intended to finish it. "How about you? You managed to get away from your fans much quicker than before! You didn't threaten their lives did you?" Jaune teased even if he knew the answer was that Yang had made it clear when she was with him or her sister she didn't want to be bothered.

"Bah, I don't have to resort to petty threats. Anyways we have a couple months before the end of Signal and then our break before attending Beacon what are our plans going forward?" Yang was curious as there entire goal for so long had been getting her to be a viable candidate for the Fall maiden and while that's not guarantied at least currently Ozpin now has another option outside of Pyrrha.

"Well, there a couple things to discuss Partners, Teams making sure Ruby gets into Beacon."

"Wait what do you mean making sure Ruby gets into Beacon I thought you said she always gets into Beacon?" Yang was confused as Jaune had told her many times that Ruby attending Beacon was an event he was unable to change not that he wanted to, many events only worked out as well as they did he believed because Ruby was there participating in them.

"Normally she gets into Beacon by confronting Torchwick in a dust robbery which is likely still to happen, but this time Torchwick will be dealing with a much better-trained version of Ruby than he ever has in the past my hints and suggestions to her training have made her much more frightening opponent and that could be an issue. If somehow Roman is forced to take that encounter seriously Ruby could be in serious danger even with Glynda arriving to assist I am concerned that the fight could become far more serious than it has ever been." Jaune closed his eyes in concern he had only begun thinking of the possible drawbacks of Ruby's advancement recently, being more skilled is both a good and bad thing.

"We could be there to help, couldn't we? I know I was just wrecking Juniors place at the time so I could be there for support as well and I bet between you, Glynda, Ruby and myself we could stop Roman then and there even if Cinder does show up to support him." Yang thought of the possibilities, stopping Roman there would seriously hurt Cinders Dust acquisition as well as dealing with a strong enemy early on.

"I cannot be there, unfortunately, I have to head back home before Beacon," Jaune said evenly he had avoided telling Yang about this because he wasn't sure what her reaction would be and judging by her look at the moment she was confused. "I need to return home to assure my family I'm alright and allow them an opportunity to dissuade me from going to Beacon."

"Why do you need to do that? Forgive me if that seems like a huge waste of time." Yang knew Jaune did most things for a reason but this seemed like an odd decision.

"Well its to protect my family and it doesn't always work depending on how other events unfold, but by doing so as long as nothing drastic happens in Vale before the Vytal Festival my family will not come to visit and if they do not come to visit then I am free to more active during the festival in the future," Jaune spoke while standing up from his chair and packing his book away. "Every life I do this for two reasons if I somehow fix everything I want my family to still care for me but I also want to if possible spare them from any danger if I can."

Yang sat there with a thoughtful look. "That makes a lot of sense actually, having so many targets at the final stages when Cinder is most active would be awful." Yang understood Jaune, realizing he had been the cause of family members deaths in the past by the way he seemed to not want to carry on this conversation. "Okay so your not gonna be around what do you suggest I do? If it is important to have Ruby attend Beacon I have to make sure her encounter with Roman goes the way it should, shouldn't I?

"I'm not really sure, It wouldn't be a bad idea to be nearby to step in if the fight becomes more serious but remember removing Roman causes Cinder to be more proactive in jobs that she would normally let Roman handle and unlike Cinder, Roman worries about the police and at least currently has a sort of code or creed that he abides by." Jaune had stressed many times that having Roman around and in charge wasn't a terrible thing and was glad that even though he might have been the direct cause of her death at least Yang so far didn't hold a serious vendetta against the man. Roman was normally dealt with during the attack on Beacon and Jaune had to admit leaving him as uninhibited as possible worked out very well at least in predicting and dealing with events leading up to the Vytal Festival.

"Yeah yeah, you have told me enough times already I get it." Yang rolled her eyes. Jaune had stressed very hard on leaving Roman alone and only interfering during certain events, Yang thought she would be more upset at basically giving the man a free pass considering he had killed them but surprisingly she found herself not really caring too much especially after Jaune had explained that Roman naturally died during the Vytal Festival, Jaune actually could not remember a life where the criminal ever survived past those events at least when she had asked. His last life being a large exception to that rule.

Jaune watched as Yang spaced out in the chair she sat in, he was used to at this point as he was pretty sure he wore the same look during many of his early lives as he tried to mentally work his way through events and situations in his mind. "Snap out of it Yang we still have time before Vale and Beacon and I know nothing important happens between then and now so we have time to relax as well as plan. Speaking of planning, here take this it will be helpful to you if you can't reach me in a pinch." Jaune pulled a book from his bag and slid handed it to Yang while watching as she flipped through the first couple pages.

"What is this?" Yang tried to read the first page but after the third attempt she gave up.

"I'll help you with the shorthand I write in but that is basically an encyclopedia of knowledge about the events we will experience starting from shortly before Initiation up till shortly after the events of the Fall of Beacon."

"Don't I already know all this information? We have talked about pretty much everything to death at this point whats the point of giving me a book that I'm going to need to have you explain what half these abbreviations mean?"

"We have talked about everything that will happen but this book explains multiple of the most common outcomes of my actions of how I deal with the events." Jaune took the book back and flipped to near the end around where he began writing about Mountain Glenn. "Here I will use this as an example, This is an entry about Mountain Glenn these notations in the side reference which team was sent on this mission." Jaune pointed to a team setup that once Yang focused she realized the team that had went this time had Glynda Goodwitch with team JNPR. "These other mark's make note of who we encountered, who fought who and the results of the encounters." Jaune motioned to a set of marks that made it clear that Glynda had fought the Paladins alone and won the fight, Ren and Nora fought Neo with the fight being marked inconclusive with as Jaune explained what a notation meant that one of the combatants fled and with it pointing to Neo meaning she had fled but not that she had lost the fight, Pyrrha had fought the White Fang leiutenant and won and Jaune had fought Roman also earning a victory. Jaune went on to explain the outcome of the breech into Vale and who responded to it for the most part the encounter played exactly as Yang remembered it from her time doing it.

Jaune flipped the page and handed it back to her and Yang read through another similar group that had the Mountain Glen mission. This time it was Oobleck with Team JNPR. Yang read the much shorter entry and several that followed about multiple Mountain Glenn Missions all performed by team JNPR and for the most part the mission did not go well for the team almost always resulting in a casualty if Neo was confronted alone. Going through a few more pages she discovered teams that were no longer JNPR these were teams such as RWBY or CFVY even one with Team CRDL eventually Yang got to the end of the pages pertaining to Mountain Glenn, Jaune had to answer a few questions about certain notations or abreviations she didn't understand but the book provided her with a great deal of knowledge about the mission that expanded on things she never thought to ask Jaune about before if the rest of the book was similar it would be a great reference book for her.

"How long have you been writing that?" Yang flipped through more pages everything was cleanly written and well organized.

"That particular book for the past year, it is actually my third copy at this point." Jaune pulled out his original book and handed it to Yang and smiled as she opened it and almost dropped it in a mental shock as the pages were filled with messy writing random notes added other events added in the middle of a completely different event not to mention the occasional stain on the parchment the from what looked to be coffee. "The other good copy I also have for myself as this one is beyond the point of salvage and I was just going to burn it now that you have your copy."

"You should burn that its an abomination to books. If Blake ever saw that I think you would maybe earn an enemy worse that Salem!" Yang threw the original book back at Jaune her eyes felt soiled from just looking at a few pages.

"So you mean I should give this to Blake and make it seem like It came from Salem? You know I never considered that plan, Enrage Blake with her love of books and unleash her on our enemies." Jaune laughed as he stowed the book away.

Jaune turned to leave laughing, Yang quickly got to her feet to leave with his the two of them walking away casually joking about terrible wrath Blake would unleash upon the world.

* * *

 **The Fight is done!**

 **Personally, I'm not really happy with it but I couldn't delay any further not having it finished for posting today would force me back to Sunday before I would have a chance do anything again.**


	10. Chapter 10

_This is beginning to get old! Maybe I should convince Ozpin to introduce Amber to Taiyang, get him to seduce her and settle down have a couple kids and more importantly not have me hunting her down every other week when she decides to ditch her escort._

Qrow stood at the crossroads trying to figure out which route Amber had taken this time.

 _She came from the South, according to the guy at the gate she was riding a horse._ Qrow had been looking for horse tracks but the news was a couple days old and looking around at the people walking past him this road saw a lot of traffic so even if he found tracks they might not even be for the person she was looking for. Qrow considered taking to the sky but with the road constantly cutting into forested areas it would be easy to miss something as well.

 _If she kept going North she would have run into one of Ironwoods search parties, the man was ever the pragmatist when had she ever taken the direct route. So that leaves East and West..._ Qrow looked towards the West it was in the most opposite way she could travel to reach her destination. _Not likely that way Amber might dislike the escort's Ironwood tries to arrange for her but when it comes to her work she been never missed being where she needs to be._

Qrow pulled his flask out and took a short drink he grimaced slightly at the warm alcohol whatever he had refilled his flask with tasted great cold but with heat it did not. Turning East Qrow followed the road for a short while until the crowd of other travels thinned down so that he was all but alone. Qrow took to his avian form and picked up the pace the sooner he found Amber the sooner he could get something better to drink.

Qrow flew for several hours covering a fairly large distance many more miles than a person walking or even on horseback would be able to cover in several days, Qrow was beginning to be a bit concerned if Amber had taken this route he should have come across her by now he was considering turning back and following the West road when in the distance he heard a dust explosion followed by a multiple shots the sounded to come from multiple weapon types.

 _Shit!_ Qrow pushed his wings hard closing with the ground so that when he got close enough he could easily change his form again. Qrows sharpened avian eyes caught sight of Amber she was using her Maiden powers and fighting multiple opponents Qrow wasn't sure but it looked like there were five people plus Amber.

Landing Qrow pulled out his scroll and hit a button that would alert Ozpin to have reinforcements head to his location immediately. Pushing himself hard Qrow raced to the road he knew that no matter how powerful a maiden was a five on one fight was something he doubted she could win.

Qrow pulled and expanded his weapon he was close enough now to see the fight and he was unsure what to make of it.

Amber was standing to one side protecting a person who was dressed to conceal their features as another person who was also wearing identity conceal clothing was engaged in combat with a with a young man.

"Amber! What's going on?" Qrow shouted while running in. Calling attention to himself he stopped the fight for a moment before with some hidden signal the three people Qrow assumed to be the enemy vanished. Qrow didn't have time to consider what ability was used to cause them to vanish because immediately after the still standing fighter's opponent vanished the unidentified fighter sprinted at Amber.

Qrow was impressed for how tired and confused Amber looked she still was still ready to fight not that her opponent was aiming to fight the unidentified fighter easily dodged past Amber's projectiles and ran past her to the other fighter Amber, Qrow assumed had been protecting. Reaching the other downed fighter the two of them vanished into thin air as well.

"Amber, are you alright? What's going on? Who were those people?" Qrow kept his weapon ready in case either of the groups returned to continue fighting.

"I'm fine, confused and more than a little beaten but I'll live. Your other two questions I have no idea I was attacked by the group of three who fled first and as I thought I was done for the other two appeared out of nowhere, the one I was protecting when you got here fought the black haired lady but was quickly defeated but it bought me time to get my defences back up." Amber looked around the battle had been brief but left the road in shambles holes from explosions marked the terrain and a couple fires were burning away, Amber used a bit of her remaining energy to quickly put out the fires before they became a serious issue.

"If they helped you why did you attack the one?"

"I had just been attacked! Yes, they saved my life but whether they had done it intentionally or for some other purpose I don't know. I defended myself on reflex I'll have you know I'm more than a little bit paranoid having just been attacked and learning that Ozpin and Ironwood were right that someone is actually trying to kill me."

Qrow shock his head. "Okay, I can understand that. It's not safe here I sent out a distress call to Ozpin, if Ironwood still has his flunkies in the area there will be a bullhead here shortly." Qrow had no sooner spoken the words when he heard a Bullhead engine in the distance the ship's engines being pushed to the maximum.

There were three bullheads in total one had landed to pick them up and once they were safely in the air the Pilot called Qrow up front and handed him a headset.

"Qrow, Whats going on Ozpin sent me looking for you, he said you activated the emergency line!" Ironwoods voice filled his head Qrow groaned inwardly he didn't want to deal with the man at least not with the limited alcohol he had at his disposal.

"I found Amber, she's alright now, I'm not entirely sure what the whole story is and neither is she. I found her while she was engaged in a fight. According to her she was attacked by three people and had lost but before the attackers could do whatever they had planned to her two other people showed up to defend her. When I showed up Amber was defending one of her rescuers and whoever her attackers chose to flee at that point."

"My soldier's said they only picked up the two of you what happened to the people who saved Amber?"

"Honestly not sure after the attackers fled the other two vanished as well, they were covered in clothing to conceal their identities, hell I couldn't even tell you their gender for how wrapped up they were." Qrow leaned back in his seat and turned to look at Amber she was laid down on the floor of the bullhead with a medic examining her. "Whoever they were they saved her that's clear but they also didn't want anyone to know who they were either."

"The pilot will take you and Amber to Beacon, hopefully, this time she will listen to Ozpin."

With that the headset Qrow wore went quiet, he took it off and moved back into the passenger compartment to have a drink and keep an eye on Amber.

* * *

"WE HAD HER! WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED? WHO WERE THOSE PEOPLE?" Cinder raged everything had gone as planned each step was flawlessly and meticulously planned, a moment longer and she would have stolen the Fall Maidens powers.

Emerald and Mercury stood away from their enraged leader, neither knew how to react they were accustomed to Cinder subtle threats which both knew she could follow through on but seeing her anger first hand scared both of them. They watched Cinder rage for several long minutes until finally, she gained control of her rage.

"Emerald, Mercury I have someone I need to go see, I want the two of you to back in Vale, keep Torchwick working, our plans haven't changed." Cinder spun preparing to leave knowing that they knew their orders.

"Um, what about the White Fang? Are we just giving up on them?" Mercury asked, The White Fang was not essential but it would be a great asset and with everything, they still needed to do not having the Fang would force them to take a great deal of personal risk.

"Adam Taurus made it clear that he and his forces cannot be bought, with this setback I don't have the power to intimidate him either. Once I return though I feel that Mr. Taurus will have a change of heart on participating in our plans."

Emerald and Mercury watched Cinder leave neither knew where she was going but they had their orders to follow.

Cinder's rage burned right below the surface it was being suppressed only so that she could think, to plan. _Salem is not going to forgive this. She doesn't forgive anything and with what I promised to do for her this failure...no setback that is all this was was a setback. I have news for her too, those two new people who interfered she never told me about them when I was preparing my plans maybe learning she has more enemies will save me from her wrath._ Cinder walked in silence, time was short and she had much to do.

* * *

Two sets of eyes watched Cinder leave neither made a move or a sound, after Cinder was far out of sight they looked at each other for a moment before disappearing again.

* * *

Jaune yawned sleepily as he walked into the kitchen of his family household he had been her for the better part of a month and today was his last day home, Jaune looked around and found that same as every other day he had been home the only person who had reached the kitchen before him was his father. Jaune moved to the stove and turned it on pulling out multiple pans and items Jaune began cooking breakfast. After a few moments, Jaune had a skillet filled with pancakes that he watched cook making sure not to let any burn, on another burner Jaune had eggs frying and further down he had a pan sizzling away filled with bacon.

After making sure that the current batch of pancakes still had a few more minutes before being done Jaune moved to start setting the table after making sure all placements were down Jaune move back to the stove to take the latest batch of pancakes off and add more batter. Sliding away again he added juices and milk to the table and a couple different kinds of syrup.

Jaune made up a plate for his father and placed it in front of the man who was reading an article on his scroll while mindlessly sipping his coffee, Nicholas only seemed to snap out of his morning routine when the food was placed in front of him. Jaune didn't wait for a thank you, he knew his father wouldn't offer one but he would wear a pleased smile to show his appreciation. Jaune made another plate up and handed it to his mother as she stepped into the room, he watched her blink in confusion as she sat down to begin her meal.

Jaune repeated this as his sisters gradually made their way to the kitchen the smell of breakfast pulling them awake. Jaune knew the exact order each would enter the kitchen which chair they would sit at who would talk to who Jaune loved this moment it was a perfect moment in time. Jaune had practiced this day to perfection over his many lives in the beginning when he started visiting his family before Beacon the relationships he had with his siblings were strained and it took many lifetimes to truly understand their feelings about his decision and many more lifetimes to find the right way to convince them of what he was doing was what he wanted with his life.

When he did it perfect the first time his mother had been the one to prepare this breakfast Jaune had watched her do it many times after that he wasn't sure why he decided to become the cook but at some point he felt that he wanted to, ever since then Jaune had cooked and had become better and better at this moment now even if the motions were entirely mechanical he looked over his happy family as they smiled and joked Jaune would feel all the worries he had disappearred for a short while.

Once everyone had their fill Jaune began the work of clearing the table which was quickly put to a stop as his mother and several of his sisters quickly took the job from him and chased him out of the kitchen. Jaune was used to this and made his way out the front entrance of his home he moved to a spot he liked to sit and he watched the sun rise over the trees and sat contentedly.

After the sun had fully risen above the trees surrounding his home Jaune heard a booted foot scrape against the ground Jaune recognized the familiar sound of how his father walked but was unsure about his presence normally the first person to visit him after the morning meal was his youngest sister wanting to play one last game before he left.

"Jaune could I speak with you for a moment, preferably away from the house?"

"Sure thing dad." Jaune quickly got to his feet and brushing off the dirt from his pants he followed his father along a trail beyond the house. "What did you want to speak to me about? If you are going to try talking me out of this my mind is already set." Jaune was unsure about this encounter with his father the man had always been a little strange to him but Jaune assumed that was because his father was used to dealing with an army of girls and not sure how to handle a son.

"No nothing like that, I know your mind has been set and I doubt I could convince you not to at least not without having to physically restrain you. I just want to ask you a question and give you something before you leave." Nicholas led them off the trail and headed deeper into the brush.

Jaune had never been this way before and was not sure where his father was taking him. "Well while we head to wherever we're going what's the question?"

"I was just wondering if you knew what your Semblance was?"

"No, I haven't, though I have been told by a couple people that I have a very large Aura compared to others. My Semblance might just be that I can take more hits that someone else. Guess whoever was handing out Semblances that day took one look at me and just expected me to get beat up." Jaune joked trying to deflect the question. Nicholas had never in any of Jaune's lives ever asked about Semblances.

"Having a large Aura isn't a bad thing, why I would consider it a blessing, if that's all you have, to many Semblances, can cause the person unintentional pain and problems in their lives."

Jaune wasn't sure but it sounded like his father had stressed the ending of his response but he didn't have time to consider it as Jaune walked into his father's back as he had stopped moving. "Hey! Give me a little heads up next time you just stop moving." Jaune looked around his father and into an overgrown clearing that had a dilapidated hut sitting in the middle of it. "What is this place?"

"This is your mother and mines original house before we started having children. After your oldest sister was born and your second oldest was on the way I began building the house you grew up in. I haven't actually been back here in gods, twenty-some years."

Jaune watched as his father gave the small hut an almost whimsical look before moving towards it. "If you haven't been here for so long what could possibly be out here that you would want to give me?" Jaune followed his father towards the hut.

"Crocea Mors the weapon you use wasn't always the shape you knew it as your Grandfather was not a large man and when his father gave him the sword it was a much larger two-handed blade that your grandfather could not wield. With his father's blessing, he had the blade melted down and crafted into the sword and shield that he would use and eventually pass on to me. There was some material left over after the Crocea Mors you know and use it wasn't much and I feel ashamed that I forgot about it for so long but it was made into a pendant that showed the heritage of the weapon." As Nicholas spoke he had moved into the hut moving carefully to not upset the rickety structure. Nicholas disappeared into one of the few tiny rooms in the hut and emerged a moment later holding a small wooden box which he handed to Jaune.

Jaune took the box gingerly much like the hut it felt quite fragile to hold. Jaune gingerly opened the lid and inside the box was a pendant that looked like a miniature version of the Crocea Mors he knew but resting atop the shield was a much large sword one he did not recognize but from what his father had told him he guessed it to be the what the original Crocea Mors looked like. Jaune pulled it the pendant out of the box and stared at it the craftsmanship was amazing he couldn't find a single flaw.

"I haven't thought about this pendant in a long time I guess learning you modified Crocea Mors reminded me of it. Anyways we should be heading back your sisters will want to say their last goodbyes before you leave." Nicholas spoke as he started making his way back out fo the clearing.

Jaune eyed the pendant for another moment, he considered wearing it for a moment but instead placed it in his pocket for the time being. _I have changed Crocea Mors hundreds of times and this is the first time he has ever bothered to remember this pendant? What changed that triggered this I wonder?  
_

* * *

Yang followed Ruby through Vale's shopping district, she had made the excuse for them to separate a few blocks back saying she was going to meet up with a couple friends to catch a movie. Yang had laughed at using the exact same excuse from her other life she had ditched Ruby almost exactly the same way last time to go to Juniors club.

Following Ruby had been easy after splitting up, Ruby had window shopped a few weapons stores being the enthusiast she was, after drooling over other weapons for awhile she had worked up an appetite and headed to a bakery and had come out holding a cookie the size of a dinner plate. Finally, after a few more stops Yang watched Ruby walk into the dust shop that she knew was set to be robbed, now all she had to do was sit back and wait.

Yang had only been waiting for a couple minutes when a group of men walked up that she recognized as some of Junior's henchmen. Yang glanced around trying to spot Torchwick, Jaune had told her he was always there but if he was Yang couldn't see the man. The group of thugs proceeded into the store and moments later came running out chased by her sister holding Cresent Rose. After a brief exchange, Ruby had easily handled the goons that had tried to attack her.

Yang still could not find Torchwick anywhere. _Jaune couldn't have been wrong...could he? I mean he's even said it himself he's not normally here for this event as it turns out the same every time, but then how does Ruby always end up going to Beacon?_

Yang watched as police showed up and a very stern looking Glynda Goodwitch appearing as well. Yang decided to bail getting caught by Glynda would just make Ozpin suspicious of her and by extension Jaune again and she didn't want to risk that she would have to trust that Ruby will do something to get her into Beacon still, either way, she will know by tomorrow.

Yang pulled out her Scroll and quickly dialed to Jaune, he should be in Vale or at least close by now as Initiation was tomorrow.

"Hello?" Jaunes voice came through the scroll he had accepted the call as voice only something he seemed to prefer.

"Jaune, there had been a change Torchwick wasn't at the robbery it was just a group of Junior's thugs."

"What do you mean he wasn't there? He's never not been there." Jaune's voice held a trace of concern.

"I don't know what to say I watched the entire thing he was nowhere to be seen. Maybe you were wrong? You even said it yourself you don't deal with this event much maybe there are times where he doesn't show up." Yang knew that argument was pretty weak but she couldn't think of a reason why Roman would be absent.

After a long pause which Yang started to think the call had been dropped Jaune's voice came through again. "Things are changing, something has happened and I don't know what it is. I can understand Taiyang and Crow changing, being different with me, I have been around them long enough to elicit that change but first my father acting oddly this morning and now Torchwick not being where he should." Jaune spoke slowly more to himself than to Yang on the other end of the call.

"So what does that mean for us? If changes are happening that we don't have any direct interaction with does that mean your Semblance screwed up when it brought me back and messed with events?"

"I'm not sure but I guess with you coming back being out of the norm already who says that it wouldn't have other effects on how events transpired." Jaune rubbed his forehead. _Nothing is ever simple or straightforward, is it? Maybe this is a result of something I did unintentionally? Qrow went on fewer missions than I expected he would maybe having him be nearby has had some effect on criminal activity and forced Roman to be less public?_ "I'll be landing soon, nothing we can do about this right now either Ruby gets into Beacon or she doesn't we can't really do anything at this point. If she's on the Bullhead tomorrow with us great, if not we will have to manage without her, but right now I have to find a place to spend the night, call me later if you hear any news."

"Alright, take care of yourself Jaune." Yang ended the call and came to a stop she was unsure what to do, Jaune sounded confused on the call, too many things were happening he couldn't explain and Yang feared that he might start stressing too hard about inconsistencies again and that would not be good for either of them.

* * *

"Roman, what's this I hear another failed robbery what does that make seven no eight I believe in this month alone." Mercury paced behind the red haired man taunting him with his failures.

"Oh, I'm sorry, would you like to try your hand at these robberies be my guest! I would love to see you deal with a robbery when every god damned aspiring hunter and huntress is in town waiting for their little hero school to start." Roman rolled his eyes, he didn't know where Cinder was and without her here personally he wasn't going to take any shit from some pretty boy wanna-be assassin who claim's to have killed his own father. Roman knew Marcus Black and this shit stain of a kid could only have a chance if Marcus was already half dead.

"Pretty sure I could at least do a better job than you how much dust have you even managed to bring in these last few months anyways?" Mercury was getting fed up with Roman.

"Well, lets see I have intercepted three S.D.C shipments in the last two months alone yielding more dust than if I managed to successfully rob ever store that sold dust in Vale five times over!" Roman stared down the kid smugly figuring that was the end of the conversation.

"We haven't heard you have been hitting big shipments, Cinder won't want the extra attention your just lucky she's not here right now!"

"I'm Lucky, HA, your lucky she didn't show up before your little falling out with your pops or you would have just been a greasy smear on a wall, your not first pick, BOY, your second string at best a best and thinking that your more important than anyone else can make you less important really quick." Roman seethed he was tired of this and wanted to goad brat into a fight and could see that he had struck a cord as Mercury sent a kick his way.

Roman fired Melodic Cudgel with it planted firmly on the ground the head of the cane slammed into Mercury's face staggering him, Roman grabbed his weapon out of the air and taking it in both hand's smashed it across Mercury's face sending him to the floor. Roman watched Mercury push off the ground trying to get back to his feet but Roman was right beside him and in a golf club swing hit Mercury in the face a third time, this time Mercury didn't try to get up his Aura was gone and he was unconscious, Roman spit on the waste of flesh before returning back to his wall planning his next move.

"You know he might be second string as you said but I doubt Cinder would appreciate what you just did!" Emerald had watched the entire exchange and even smiled when Mercury had been so easily defeated.

"Well Cinder isn't here, and if she was I doubt she would care too much about him. You and I are assets, both of us bring something to the table that she need's I'm not exactly sure what she needs from you but she treats you better than him so she still needed you for something, me I'm an asset because I get things done and can overlook the little things focus on the big picture I might not know what that picture is but I know my neck is on the line if I fuck this up so I'm trying really hard not too." Roman responded off hand, he wouldn't admit it to anyone but he liked Emerald they had a very similar background and she was still young and full of stupid ideas and opinions that he himself once had. Time would temper her and one day if she could keep herself alive Emerald would probably run a successful criminal organization some day.

"Mercury wasn't wrong, three S.D.C shipments going missing in such a short time will get two much attention on Vale." Emerald stated she knew they needed the dust but they also needed to keep a low profile still.

"That's why the shipments I stole were not coming to Vale, it's also why there not here yet. I feel there is going to be a great deal of Atlas interest in Mistrel for awhile." Roman said smugly, he had been doing this for a long time and knew how to evade authorities.

"Where the hell is Cinder anyways? The three of you left on your little job with the promise to me at least of a larger workforce to get some of your bigger projects going and you actually came back with fewer people than what you left with." Roman asked with his back turned.

Emerald, as much as she didn't like Roman knew him to not be stupid and the way he manhandled Mercury just now had been more than intimidating. "We had a... complication, Cinder sent us back here to keep an eye on things."

Roman turned, staring at Emerald. "That wasn't my question!"

"We, uh, we don't know where she went she just told us to keep working and she would be back after visiting someone, someone who could maybe fix our complication." Emerald didn't want to betray Cinder but she also didn't want to piss off Torchwick, without Cinder around the man was not keen on taking anyone else's orders, Emerald suspected if Cinder was gone long enough Roman Torchwick might be gone even with Mercury and her were keeping tabs on the man.

"Well that's just fabulous I'm stuck here babysitting and the person who's footing the bill is out visiting, gods it's like being married." Roman sighed and turned to a corner. "Neo, I have a job for you."

Neo hoped off a crate she had been sitting on watching the entire event from Mercury's beating too Emerald admitting she didn't know where Cinder was. She moved to stand beside Roman and stared at him with a quizzical look and a lopsided grin.

"Give this to Junior." Roman handed Neo a small enveloped. "Then I need to head to Vacuo and oversee the next theft."

Neo looked at the envelope it was too thin to be a payoff but she didn't really care she nodded once and turned to leave smiling at all the fun she was going to have in Vacuo.

* * *

 **What Amber is alive, who were those two masked people, Cinders going to see Salem, Jaune got some cool new necklace, Roman wasn't at the robbery what will happen to Ruby now and most important did Qrow ever get something better to drink than what he had in his flask?**

 **Well, that was a fun chapter to write my favorite part was Roman beating the shit out of Mercury probably next to Adam Taurus my least favorite character in RWBY currently.**

 **Alright, where to start.**

 **First off since I know people will be concerned about the two characters that saved Amber and I'll give you a couple answers here.**

 **1)They are not Yang and Jaune. I stated early on that Jaune didn't know when or where Amber was attacked and he has no way to find out.**

 **2)They are not OC either. I don't like using OC so they are characters that are already in the world.**

 **That being said I'm sure more than a few of you will guess their identities pretty quickly either through luck or the few hints I've been dropping occasionally.**

 **Anyways next chapter will be getting into the meat of the initiation, not just the teasing build up I did this time.**

 **I actually have the initiation mostly done I was originally going to work this into the previous chapter and the start of the initiation but the more I wrote the more I felt that this deserved to be its own chapter.**

 **Anyways hope you guys like this chapter and hope you people out there dislike Mercury as much as I do.**


	11. Chapter 11

Ruby wasn't sure what had happened. She had stopped a robbery and then this really stern looking Huntress appeared with a bunch of police and she was hauled off to the police station and now she was stuck in some featureless room being told to wait and someone would be along to take her statement shortly.

"Hello? Have you forgotten I was in here?" Ruby had grown tired of waiting and was going to peek her head out the door only to find the door to be locked from the outside. she attempted knocking but if anyone heard the noise they didn't seem inclined to do anything about it. Sighing Ruby took her seat again and waited in boredom wishing whoever was coming to take her statement would hurry up.

Outside the room staring through a one-way window Taiyang looked at his youngest daughter. "I understand what you're saying Ozpin and I honestly cannot deny that Beacon would be a better fit for Ruby than Signal, but still I'm allowed to be a concerned parent alright!"

"Understandably, but that does not answer my question will you allow young Ms. Rose this opportunity to attend Beacon? Her school record show she more than meets the criteria we allow students to attend and from your own accounts now that her sister and Mr. Arc have left Signal she has no really peer when it comes to combat." Ozpin also watched the young girl, he never gave her more than passing interest before only learning tonight that she wielded a weapon similar to her uncle and that said uncle had actually personally taught her. Ozpin felt foolish, how many times had he talked to Qrow and the man had mentioned training Ruby and he never learned the weapon the young women used. Though to be fair with her size and stature the fact she used such a large unwieldy weapon was a strange thought itself.

"I'm not against it Ozpin, Ruby can attend Beacon, as you have pointed out keeping her at Signal would do her no good and personally I will be glad to know that Yang will be able to keep an eye on her there." Taiyang sighed it hurt a little bit to see Yang leave but letting Ruby go too he felt his gut twist but he knew that was just an overprotective reaction, Yang was strong confident and willful, Ruby was also strong but she lacked confidence and was well 'awkward' he hoped she would be all right.

Taiyang watched as Ozpin entered the room on the other side of the glass and listened to the conversation he finally sighed and smiled when Ruby admitted to Ozpin that she wanted to attend Beacon more than anything. _That's the right answer._

* * *

Jaune felt squished, Ruby was squeezing the air out of him, it was worse since Yang was playing her part perfectly and had joined the hug glad to be reunited with her friend after a month's separation. "Air... please, air!" Jaune pleading went unnoticed for a moment longer until a Redhead appeared among their group.

"Ms. Xaio Long..." Pyrrha noticed Yang's frown. "Sorry, Yang so good to see you again!"

"You're on a first-name basis with Pyrrha Nikos!" Ruby finally letting got of Jaune to bask her sister presence.

"It's not like that Ruby, I just didn't want her to call me Ms. Xaio Long, how boring and formal does that sound." Yang said as she tried to edge away from her sister's fanatical look.

"Um, Yang your kind of ignoring Ms. Nikos maybe introduce us?" Jaune catching his breath stepped in to everyone's aid. Yang trying to get away from Ruby who was trying to get closer and Pyrrha who while smiling like always stood confused on the outside of the interaction even if she had been the cause of it.

"Oh, Right of course! Pyrrha these are Jaune Arc and Ruby Rose." Yang said gratefully now that her sister's attention was now focused on Pyrrha and trying to not embarrass herself.

"It is a pleasure to meet both of you. Are you friends of Yang's from Signal?" Pyrrha asked politely.

"Jaune is we met him a few years back. I'm actually Yang's sister, well half-sister if you want to be technical, same father different mothers." Ruby was going to say more but a hand clapped over her mouth.

"Sorry, Ruby is very excitable around new people and probably more so around famous people." Yang apologized while keeping a hand over Ruby's mouth, Yang knew that Ruby was going to make the situation awkward by saying something about their mothers and she would rather not have that conversation.

Pyrrha was laughing "Oh, no that is quite alright." Pyrrha looked at the group with a warm smile.

"So, Pyrrha? May I call you Pyrrha?" Jaune corrected himself he was unused to speaking with her before tomorrow and did not want to accidentally offend her.

"Yes Pyrrha is fine I much prefer that as Yang was blunt to point out Ms. Nikos does sound quite boring and formal." Pyrrha's eyes sparkled as the group smiled at her giving them permission to use just her first name.

 _Pyrrha is always Pyrrha, I'm glad you never change though I hope this time I can change your fate!_ "What brought you to Beacon? Mistral has a great academy as well what does Beacon have to offer you that Haven couldn't?" Jaune knew the answer but for the sake of appearances, he repeated a question he had thousands of times.

"Well it comes down to fame I suppose, in Haven I would be given special treatment and be considered better than my peers and I don't feel I deserve that, we all aspire to the same goals and ideals as huntsmen and huntress's, just because I have had opportunities others have not does not mean I am greater than them or they are any less than me. Haven would not have given me this experience of a casual conversation aboard a Bullhead talking with people who I would spend years with. No, in Haven I would arrive alone or with a teacher and I would be set apart from others my team would be influenced by powerful people in Mistral with people I don't think I could consider friends. So I made plans that my parents agreed with and that is why I am at Beacon." Pyrrha finished her explanation there had been times where her smile dimmed but it never vanished and now that she had finished speaking it shone radiantly again.

Jaune smiled the story was the same as every the context changed as normally this was a private question he would ask her after many weeks at Beacon. "Well, I'm glad you are here at Beacon I doubt Yang would find sparing class's all that fun without a real opponent."

Ruby finally broke free of her sisters grasp."What do you mean? You have to be at least as good as Yang at this point! I heard Uncle Qrow mention once how you trained with Yang all the time when no one was around." Ruby's voice vanished again as Yang got her hand back in place.

"Again, ignore Ruby she doesn't know what she's talking about." Yang struggled to keep Ruby's mouth shut.

"I...see." Pyrrha sent an amused look at the two sisters and then glanced at Jaune with a questioning look.

"Ruby only knows half the story, when I started at Signal I was lousy in a fight, Yang took pity on me and trained me in whatever spare time she had and after all this time I might be vastly improved but I doubt I could hold a candle to either Yang or yourself." Jaune lied through his teeth, the last thing he wanted was for Pyrrha to be interested in his combat abilities.

"Well if you can train with Yang after so many years I bet you are some impressive fighter yourself even if you intend to be modest about it." Pyrrha spoke as she became excited at the prospect of finding another person who might be able to give her a true fight.

Over the loud speaker, the pilot of the bullhead warned of there impending arrival at Beacon and everyone should prepare for departure.

"I must be going I need to collect my bags, see you later." Pyrrha smiled and waved as she disappeared to another part of the crowded Bullhead.

"I better go grab my things as well I'll catch up with you two in a minute." Jaune spoke his rehearsed line it wasn't guarantied but Jaune was trying to have Ruby meet Weiss naturally as she had in the past though he doubted it would succeed and if it didn't between Yang and himself they had a couple other plans to ensure the two met and hopefully would become partners. Jaune slipped into the crowd and picked up his bag he a placed in a corner in advance.

He turned and watched as the Bullheads doors opened and Yang used whatever excuse she had concocted to abandon Ruby and vanished out the door in an instant. Jaune ducked his head to hide behind the crowd when he saw Ruby begin searching for him. _Come on go outside and meet Weiss. Please just do this the easy way._ Jaune risked raising his head and was glad to see that Ruby had made here way out of the Bullhead though Jaune looked to where she had been standing she had forgotten her own bag in her panic to locate him. Sighing he hefted the second bag and joined the last few people filing out of the Bullhead.

"Excuse me! Did you just steal that bag?" Jaune turned at the familiar voice of Weiss Schnee.

"No, it belongs to a friend of mine I noticed she forgot it and figured I would save her the trouble of having to track it down later." Jaune tried to sound bored with the exchange even if he just wanted to throw himself off the cliffside as he knew the easy meeting between Ruby and Weiss was ruined already.

"A likely story! More likely you were intending to blackmail the owner of that bag somehow." Weiss accused.

Jaune repressed the urge to roll his eyes, dealing with Weiss was always frustrating at the beginning and the middle and well the end as well really. Suddenly Jaune had a wicked idea. "Look, Ms. Schnee," Jaune watched her eyes widen at that she hadn't introduced herself "If you want to be in charge of returning this bag to its owner be my guest." Jaune tossed the back to the heiress hoping that Weiss would both catch it and that there was nothing breakable in the bag. "It belongs to Ruby Rose she about your height, black hair with red tips and wearing a black outfit and a red cape." With that Jaune quickly put a large distance between himself and Weiss as possible while she fumbled to respond.

"Wait, Come back! I believe you, you can have the bag back." Weiss looked around but she was alone now. She turned to deposit the bag back in the Bullhead figuring to leave it where its owner would know to look. Weiss was a moment too late in that plan as the Bullhead had just closed it's doors and taken off to who knew where. Weiss stood there holding the bag and looking around lost.

"Wait, Come back!" Weiss looked towards the voice that had repeated what she just said. "Please, I forgot my bag on there."

"Could this be the bag you forgot?" Weiss walked towards the girl, _Ruby I think it what that man said._

Ruby looked up and immediately recognized her bag, not thinking she embraced the other girl in a hug. "Thank you thank you thank you! I don't know who you are but you're my hero." Ruby stepped back from the hug when she realized she was hugging a stranger, and by the looks of it, she might have given her hero a heart attack with the sudden impromptu hug for how stiff the white haired girl was. "Sorry about that, I'm just a little excited."

The apology snapped Weiss out of shock. ' _cough_ ' "It was no problem we couldn't have someone forgetting there bag now could we." Weiss finally took a good look at the person she was talking to. "Um, aren't you a bit young to be at Beacon, though?" Weiss spoke slightly confused as the girl she was speaking to looked a few years younger than herself.

"Technically, yes, I'm only fifteen, but Professor Ozpin personally invited me to attend Beacon." Ruby convenient ignore the other details instead using a tactic she had learned from Jaune where sometimes less information was better.

"You must be quite the student if the Headmaster of Beacon personally invited you." Weiss was impressed whoever this Ruby was she must be quite gifted. "Oh, forgive my manners I haven't introduced myself yet, I am Weiss Schnee." Weiss gave a slight bow.

"Oh, Okay I'm Ruby Rose." Ruby smiled warmly at how well this meeting with a new person was going.

"Well, Ms. Rose I think we should be heading inside or we will risk being late." Weiss gathered her things and made her way inside with Ruby walking along with her.

"Um, I'm not sure where you come from but if it's not too much of a problem for you could you please just call me Ruby?" Ruby took a cue from her sister and Pyrrha she also didn't like the formality of using a person's last name.

"I am from Atlas," Weiss looked at Ruby and was confused how the girl didn't recognize her name but thought after a moments consideration that was actually a good thing. "While it is against the etiquette I was raised with I am not there anymore so yes I would be happy to call you Ruby as long as your fine with calling me, Weiss." Weiss smiled at Ruby as they walked inside. _Ruby might be younger than me but I feel like she could be a real friend, not someone who would just wanted to be associated with my name._

* * *

Farther back from the two girls, Jaune watched in disbelief his jaw slack from shock even. _What the hell was that!_ Jaune felt a presence move up beside him.

"So how did it go did Ruby blow herself up again or do we have to step in and help her out?" Yang asked not really able to understand Jaune's baffled expression.

"I don't think we have to do anything." Jaune explained to Yang what had happened in the past couple minutes and the only reaction he got was Yang laughing in his face.

"You mean to tell me you deal with that drama fest every life and the entire thing was fixed by a forgotten bag and you not wanting to put up with Weiss's wonderful attitude, oh that's too good." Yang continued laughing as the two of them made their way indoors with the last few stragglers.

"Laugh at me all you want, at least I only ever head to deal with your team from an outside perspective I typically just sat and watched as your team tried to implode over the first part of the year!" Jaune scowled, annoyed with the fact that something had worked out so perfectly it felt too good to be true. "So? are you still set with keeping Team RWBY as the team you want to have?"

"Oh? are you perhaps jealous that I didn't choose you?" Yang grinned at Jaune.

"No, nothing like that! I'm actually glad you made that decision and I liked your reasoning behind it also, If things go well and things go right this time you want to have your team and your friendships rebuilt to what you remember them and I respect that, it's also a reason I typically stick to team JNPR these days." Jaune grinned back he had been worried Yang would want to be on his team and while he wasn't opposed to it he was glad she choose this option instead as it would make a number of events easier.

Entering the familiar courtyard Yang and Jaune moved to stand beside Ruby who was still talking with Weiss.

"Hey sis, not here five minutes and already made a new friend? Is this gonna be the opposite of Signal where I'm the weird awkward one now?" Yang grinned as she draped an arm over her sister's shoulder before turning to Weiss. "Hello I am Yang Xaio Long and the blonde guy behind me is Jaune Arc!" Yang waved a greeting to Weiss.

Weiss smiled at the greeting she got from Yang but after getting a look at the man behind her she had introduced at Jaune Arc she scowled. "YOU, how could you do that to me? No, how could you do that to Ruby what if I was some weird degenerate that wanted to do inappropriate things with her bag?" Weiss scolded the man and was about to become angrier with how he was just smiling at her.

"So you mean what you accused me of being? Really If you were going to do anything weird to Ruby's belongings I would have intervened, do you think I would give you my friend's bag and not keep an eye on you?" Jaune watched as Weiss's argument failed her. "That being said no harm done the two of you look like your becoming friends and I hope I haven't offended you too much Ms. Schnee with my little prank."

"Could you please not call me Ms. Schnee, my name is Weiss!" Weiss snapped at Jaune, she wasn't sure but the way he said Ms. Schnee even if it was proper it sounded like he was struggling to suppress a laugh every time he said it and it was infuriating her. "Also how do you know who I am? I doubt you are a fan and judging by your weapon it doesn't look like you use dust!" Weiss eyed Jaune critically waiting for his response which instead came from Ruby.

"Jaune knows a lot of things, he reads pretty much anything he can get his hands on and he's great at helping people improve there fighting he actually gave me a whole bunch of pointers that helped me improve problems with my fighting style." Ruby answered for Jaune smiling the entire time, it might have been her Uncle that did her actual teaching but it was Jaune who made her aware of the issues so he deserved part of the credit.

"It's pretty much what Ruby said I like reading, I not some weird fan trying to keep his fanboyism in check and I'm not some asshole who has some grudge against someone who doesn't have any input into a company that her father runs." Jaune felt relieved when Weiss stopped staring at him suspiciously.

"Well if that's the case I can hardly fault a person for being well read now can I?" Weiss stated. "Wait? Your Yang Xaio Long? I'm so sorry for ignoring you I was distracted please don't consider me rude!" Weiss finally realizing that the Yang who had introduced herself earlier was a champion fighter actually having beat Pyrrha Nikos in a very close match.

"What do you mean rude, I was enjoying the show and I'm happy to see my sister making friends with new people without my help. Plus if you're a friend of Ruby's your a friend of mine." Yang said with a certain finality that even If Weiss and Ruby weren't friends that they would have had to become so to not make Yang wrong.

Before they could continue their conversation a group of adults appeared across the room.

"Greetings, I am Professor Ozpin, Headmaster of Beacon Academy. I'll...keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge-to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose – direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

Jaune smiled every year the speech was the same. Jaune looked over the crowd trying to spot certain people he finally relaxed when he eventually spotted the three people he had been looking for Ren, Nora and Blake were all here.

"Now Initiation does not begin until the morning, so if you please follow Ms. Goodwitch she will show you to where you will be spending your night." With that Ozpin turned and left and in his place a very stern looking woman appeared.

"Everyone please follow me." Glynda turned and led them through the school to the large room all the new students would be sharing for their first night.

* * *

The afternoon had worn on to evening and eventually, night was creeping up and Jaune was finishing a game on his Scroll against Ruby who had thoroughly trounced him.

"Your too good at this Ruby, you have to be cheating! Using your semblance or something to be faster than me!" Jaune looked at Ruby accusingly even if he knew she couldn't do that he enjoyed her reactions even it there was a great deal more blushing that he normally ever got from the girl.

"Perhaps your just exceptionally bad at the game, even I managed to beat Ruby once and I have never played this game before tonight." Weiss smiled at him smugly as she watched him wilt under the truth of her words.

"Well you two can go another round I'm going to go find Yang she has been missing long enough that she might be causing someone trouble." Jaune stood up and tossed Weiss his Scroll so the two girls could keep playing the game if they so chose to. Jaune didn't travel far he only rounded his third makeshift tent, the girls amoung the group had constucted to afford themselves a measure of privacy from their male counterparts. Jaune used too enjoy this event in the past, Huntsmen and Huntress's kept a certain level of fitness that most people could not which resulted in the school to be seeminly populated with models more than trained killers, but now he just looked around at all the boys who ogled anything that moved and he just shook his head and could understand the need for privacy.

Jaune walked up beside Yang who had just finished talking to or more likely turning down Sky Lark from the way the teen seemed to slink away his ego been deflated. "Well, you're not causing problems but you are breaking hearts I see." Jaune smiled as Yang wheeled around and punched him in the shoulder.

"Hey a girls got to keep up appearances I can't start dating the first day here I would look too easy, you have to play hard to get, it makes it more fun." Yang grinned as she turned to look around the room. "So Ruby and Weiss still friend after any entire day together?"

"Somehow against all odds that seems to be the case. Enough about them have you tracked down where Blake is hiding yet?" Jaune watched as Yang moved her head in a direction and his eyes followed the path eventually settling on Blake sitting by herself quietly reading a book. "So, I take it since your standing on the other side of the room from her that you haven't worked up the courage to meet your old teammate again?" Jaune looked at Yang concerned, he learned through many talk's that Yang felt personally responsible for what happened to Blake and while he had tried to convince her otherwise Jaune could feel a deep fear somewhere in Yang, that if she befriends Blake again the outcome would be the same. "Yang... " Jaune sighed he didn't know what to say at this point, instead he just put an arm around her shoulder and held her close trying to give her the support she needed to confront what she considers one of her greatest failures.

"You're a good friend Jaune, I don't think I tell you that as much as I should!" Yang turned and wrapped her arms around Jaunes waste and buried her head into his chest and let his hug soothe her confused emotions.

Jaune said nothing he just held the hug for as long as Yang needed it, after a few minutes he felt her hold loosen and he did likewise and stepped back only now realizing that more than a few people had been present to watch their private moment but he didn't care and he doubted Yang would either so instead he sent the gawkers the worst scowl he could produce to get them to look elsewhere before Yang noticed the gazes.

"Yang I can do this if you're not ready for this yet." Jaune had prepared for this he knew how hard it was to confront some things and for Yang, Blake might take time for how close they were in the last life and how Yang had suffered from survivor's guilt for a very long time and maybe still does.

Yang didn't say anything she just sat down on the ground and Jaune sat with her. Time passed slowly for the two of them though Jaune doubted Yang was aware of it at the moment. He sat there in silence keeping close to comfort his distraught friend as she dealt with whatever was going on in her mind. Jaune wished he could say something, anything to truly comfort her.

Eventually, it got late enough where people started falling asleep the room became quiet aside from a few small pockets of noise. Jaune cast one final look in Blakes direction to see that any opportunity Yang or himself would have to speak with her was lost as she had gone to sleep, looking at Yang beside him he wasn't surprised to she Yang snoring softly her grief mixed with stress had sapped her of all her energy.

Jaune stood and gently lifted Yang in his arms pleased she didn't wake up and he carried her back to where he had left Ruby and Weiss hoping they both had gone to sleep and he wouldn't have to explain this situation. Jaune turned the first corner when he almost ran into Professor Port who was doing his round's to make sure nothing inappropriate was happening.

Port raised his eyebrows at the situation first noticing his champion and his face formed into a fearsome scowl as he looked up to see who might be taking advantage of her, his eyes softened though when he saw Jaune knowing that Yang spoke highly of them man. Ports expression changed to one of mirth and he sent Jaune a mischievous wink and a pat on the back as he walked quietly past the two students.

Jaune let out a sigh that he had been holding in even if his mind reeled from the thought of Port's actions meant to imply. _Great I might not care what the students think but Ports going to spread some awful rumor among the teachers._ Jaune finished his trek back to there beds and was happy to see both Ruby and Weiss sleeping peacefully, Jaune laid Yang down on top of her bedroll not wanting to wake her to try and get her inside of it Jaune instead draped his over-top of her. Once it was clear she was still sleeping peacefully Jaune proped his back against a wall and watching the three girls and eventually fell asleep himself.

* * *

Yang opened her eyes slowly and sat up, it was quite early in the day and she appeared to be the first one to wake up at least in the general vicinity anyways. Yang noticed her surrounding after a moment noticing she was back to where she had left Ruby the evening before when she went to find Blake. _Ugh, Blake, what am I going to do? Any time I think about talking to her I lock up._ Yang started to crawl out of her bedroll when she realized she wasn't in one, instead she was laying atop hers and had a second one draped over her. Yang immediately looked for Jaune to find his sitting straight backed against a wall from a position that he could easily watch over his friends.

Yang quietly got to her feet and crept towards Jaune hoping not to wake him up. _You do so much for me, no, everyone and you never expect anything in return. You really just want us all to be happy and safe._ Yang learned in a softly kissed Jaune on the cheek. _I'm not sure your reasons on why you won't make mention of our relationship from before, but I remember it and the memories of how you helped me carry me forward and I will make sure that everyone is safe and happy, Yourself included!_

With that Yang stood and stretched deciding to get an early start on the day heading to the cafeteria for breakfast but leaving a message on both Jaune and Ruby's scrolls telling them where she was.

Yang entered the cafeteria to find out she wasn't the only other one up this early, Pyrrha Nikos was sitting alone in the entire cafeteria. _Why is that not surprising._ Yang smiled she filled her plate and sat down across from Pyrrha.

"Good morning Yang, do you always rise this early?" Pyrrha asked as Yang sat down.

"Huh, oh, no not really normally I'm pretty lousy about waking up early, I guess I'm just excited for Initiation." Yang bit into a piece of toast. "What about you is Pyrrha a morning person?"

"You could say that, I never really had a choice in the matter I started my day with my parents and they were both early risers and even away from home and all the traveling I have done it is a habit I developed." Pyrrha said almost apologetically.

"Well, it's a good habit for a Huntress to have, one that more than a few people here are going to have to get accustomed to I bet." Yang thought back to how early some of there class's had been in her past life, shuddering at the memory of Port holding lectures before even breakfast was being prepared some days.

After that, the two of them focused on their meals as more people began entering the cafeteria for breakfast. Eventually, Jaune appeared looking ready and prepared to start the day and behind him walked an equally confident Weiss and bringing up the rear was Ruby who Yang could believe that her sister was actually just sleep walking. Yang stood and waved and once she was certain Jaune had seen her sat back down again.

"Are you close with Jaune?" Yang jumped at the abrupt question from Pyrrha.

"What why do you ask that?" Yang looked at the girl apprehensively remembering a conversation she had with Jaune many months back.

"Well, forgive me if I seem rude but when he's around you hardly take your eyes off him, and I can see the appeal, he is handsome and he seems to be very kind hearted." Pyrrha motioned toward Jaune who was carefully building three plates while Weiss led the zombie Ruby through the hall towards them.

"We were... are close, I would like to be closer but I think he has an issue with letting things go farther than being friends." Yang sighed she wasn't exactly sure why she was admitting this to Pyrrha. Yang decided to change the subject before anyone got too close to there table. "Enough about me and my issues, any ideas what initiation might be?"

"The actual event no but if the rumors I have heard are true it decides our partners and teams for the next few years while we attend Beacon." Pyrrha felt a little guilty betraying private information her father had given her.

"Teams huh, well that makes things interesting, I wonder if its some kind of lottery or do we get a choice." Yang smiled cryptically she couldn't divulge the information but she could have fun making random speculation for others.

"Whats this I hear about teams?" Weiss had finally managed to steer Ruby to the right table and sat down to hear talk of teams.

Pyrrha looked at the new girl in confusion.

"Oh right you two haven't met yet, Pyrrha Nikos this is Weiss Schnee, We met her yesterday and her and Ruby became fast friends and by extension with Jaune and myself as well." Yang noticed Weiss turn a little pink at the mention of friends.

"It is a pleasure to meet you." Pyrrha nodded a greeting holding her ever-present smile.

"Likewise!" Weiss smiled back. "Back to the subject though did I hear you mention teams?"

"Pyrrha told me a rumor about teams and I was trying to guess how the teams would be decided is all, we don't know if the rumors are even true though so we are just trying to pass the time while we wait."

"I hope you're not waiting for me?" Jaune appeared by the table easily balancing three plates and multiple drinks. Jaune slide the plates off his arm each one had a different breakfast meal on it. Jaune did the same with the drinks even providing a refill for both Yang and Pyrrha.

Pyrrha smiled as she realized her cup had been emptied and Jaune had even guessed what she was had been drinking and happily accepted the new cup. Pyrrha sent Yang a secret smile to which Yang rolled her eyes and grinned back.

Weiss looked at her plate in amazement she had told Jaune to get her something light not wanting to start the day on a heavy stomach when she didn't know what initiation would entail. Jaune had made her plate perfectly and even brought her one of her favorite drinks. She stared at the man wondering if the man had did it on purpose but if he had he wasn't waiting for her to respond in some way instead he was coaxing Ruby awake with a cookie-themed cereal which after a few prods managed to snap Ruby out of her zombie mode as she began devouring he meal. Weiss looked at Jaunes meal wondering if it held some clue to how he knew what she liked maybe he just had similar tastes, one look at Jaunes tray corrected that idea quickly as Jaune was eating a bowl of Hot porridge with an apple sliced into it for flavour. Weiss shook here head and started her meal.

* * *

Jaune walked through the locker room he was dressed and ready for the day and was watching others as they finished there preparations the only instructions they had received was to be prepped for combat, Jaune enjoyed watching people mill about nervously. Jaune looked to where Yang stood surrounded by Ruby, Weiss and Pyrrha, Jaune wasn't sure the topic of conversation but it seemed to be a pleasant one with the laughter coming from them.

Off in another corner Jaune spied Ren and Nora, Nora no doubt working on the Sloth plan and Ren just stood there being Ren smiling at his friend the entire time as they made there way out of the locker room. Jaune stood and headed towards the exit as well he knew once Ren and Nora were done the intercom would sound telling them to head to the cliffs overlooking the Emerald forest.

Jaune stood on the cliffside standing on his usual platform which, unfortunately, put him closest to Ozpin who stared at him with an undisguised interest. Jaune listened to the instructions of partners and teams, he knew he was to target Pyrrha and then it was just a simple task of grabbing the second White Rook piece and team JNPR would be back together again.

Or at least he hoped it would, Jaune sent a concerned glance at Yang who kept looking nervously to where Blake was standing. Jaune sighed heavily glad that Blake at least hasn't noticed to constant looks she is receiving from Yang. _Come on yang get it together, I know you are having problems but you can do this._ Jaune stared at her up until the point where she was flung over the cliff Jaune was glad the motion seemed to snap her out of her freeze as Jaune watched her begin to control her path.

Jaune braced himself against the platform making sure it would launch him the proper direction to land close to Pyrrha. Jaune sailed through the air, he was never graceful during this he had a landing strategy but it wasn't one he enjoyed using it even if it worked well enough and could count on when he knew he couldn't rely on Pyrrha stepping in to save him the way she always would. Jaune was aiming for an evergreen tree a specific one that would break his momentum and was also surrounded by a large amount of long grass that would break his fall.

Jaune hit the tree hard and the branch's whipping him in the face before he broke through the smaller branch's and landed hard on the ground with a very undignified thump. Jaune laid there for a moment dazed. _Maybe I should really invest in a better landing strategy one of these days._ Jaune thought for the thousandth time a thought that always came to him as he laid here on the ground.

Jaune rose to his feet and checked his direction and made for where I knew he would run into Pyrrha.

* * *

 **And another one done!**

 **Nothing really major going on.**

 **Not sure if I will have another chapter up this week as I will be traveling and will be unable to write.**

 **Anyways check hope you all enjoyed the chapter next update we get partners and teams.**

* * *

 _Jaune raced through the burning remains of Signal, shouting for anyone who might still be alive._

 _He had already found the bodies of Ren and Nora. Nora had died trying to protect Rens body._

 _Further on he had found Ruby and Weiss the two of them had fought to the bitter end the mountain of corpses that surrounded their figures told a grisly tale of the fight they must have endured._

 _"Yang! Blake! can either of you hear me!" Jaune raced past empty rooms towards the back of the school where he had last seen them before the attack happened._

 _Jaune reached the wall, he looked around frantically hoping to find some clue to where they two were._

 _Instead, all head found were a couple White Fang troops trying to evacuate there wounded on a Bullhead._

 _Jaune raced toward the beasts and cut them down giving no mercy to anyone who would do this to a school full of children._

 _Jaune stood soaked in blood the world around him painfully quiet, faintly he heard crying, anguished pitiful crying._

 _Jaune moved to the noise his tired body forgetting its fatigue for the moment._

 _Jaune entered a classroom and almost had his head took off by Adam Taurus. Ducking the swing at the last moment Jaune stuck himself catching the Faunus in the leg cleaving through muscle and bone nearly severing the leg. Jaune moved to finish the Vile excuse for a man but was prevented by a barrage of fire from nearby White Fang troops that moved to extract there leader._

 _Jaune wanted to follow but he was out of aura himself one stray bullet would be all it took to end his life. Instead, Jaune looked for the source of the crying._

 _In the corner of the room, Jaune found Yang cradling Blake's broken and mutilated body, Jaune hoped that Blake had died before most of what he saw now was actually done._

 _"Yang we have to go it's not safe here the first could spread and trap us at any moment." Jaune shouted at Yang trying to snap her out of it._

 _Jaune didn't have time for this the fire could trap them at any time._

 _Jaune grabbed Yang the girl didn't fight back and he hurled her forcibly from the building. Turning Jaune picked up Blake and carried her outside as well barely escaping as the room above the one they had just been in fell through the floor._

 _Jaune set down Blake and once he was sure no White Fang were still in the area collapsed on the ground and passed out. the last thing heard was Yang scream his name..._


	12. Chapter 12

Jaune moved quietly among the underbrush being careful to avoid the other students he knew would cross his path and ruin his plan's. Jaune planted his back against a tree waiting for the next person to walk past, Alexis Rhodes, I think was her name as he watched the Tall blonde walk by he caught sight of her rather unique weapon a large foldable ax attached to her arm that also could fire projectiles in multiple directions.

Once she was out of sight Jaune moved to the other side of the trail and continued to move towards where he knew Pyrrha would be heading. Jaune prepared to be ready to appear like he tripped through the undergrowth in a hunt for a trail, something he had done enough times. Reaching the spot he remembered Jaune crept to the side of the trail and sat to wait he knew Pyrrha would be along in just a couple of moments.

"..."

"..."

"..."

Jaune felt his leg begin to cramp which was a clear sign that Pyrrha had changed course somewhere along her normal route. It didn't take Jaune long to realize that Pyrrha was likely hunting Yang he had even warned Yang that such a thing was likely to happen so at least Yang would be looking out to avoid Pyrrha though Jaune knew that wouldn't stop the determined redhead.

Looking around Jaune took stock of his options. _If Pyrrha saw which way Yang was heading she had a fairly massive head start on me._ Jaune looked in the direction he needed to head he wasn't sure who would still that direction. _Ruby and Weiss will have met up already and honestly, that's for the best splitting them up never had a good outcome. Ren and Nora are also not an option._ Jaune sighed and started moving as quickly as he could in the direction he knew would lead him to Yang and Blake hoping he got there in time before Pyrrha found either of them.

* * *

Yang was hiding, she watched Blake from a very safe distance dispatch two Ursa with ease, Ursa she dealt with last time. _I'm such a damn coward, I try and pump up my confidence and at the slightest sound of something approaching what do I do I dive into a bush and hide._ Yang groaned as she watched Blake sheathe her weapon and continue on alone while she slumped against a tree defeated by her own mind before she could even try anything. _I wish I had my scroll or better yet just give me Jaune._ Yang sat in her bush for a long time until she heard noise from the trail, Yang peeked out slightly to see who was out there now and watched as Pyrrha walked down the trail alone. _Jaune was right it seems Pyrrha is out hunting for me._ Yang's eyes shone with a plan for a second before she smiled and crawled out oh her hiding spot, she knew that Jaune would be along shortly if he failed to catch Pyrrha.

Yang didn't have to wait long as shortly after Pyrrha disappeared down the trail Yang spotted Jaune jogging towards where she was waiting. Yang stepped out of the bush and smiled as she saw Jaune breath a great sigh of relief or maybe he was just trying to catch his breath Yang wasn't sure but liked to think it was the former.

"Yang, I take it you froze again?" Jaune was breathing hard but he looked at Yang with a great deal of concern prioritizing her over himself even as he sucked huge lungfulls of air from the several miles he had just run to get here.

"I"m sorry Jaune, I... I can't do it not yet at least!" Yang looked at the ground ashamed of herself wishing she was stronger.

Jaune pulled Yang close and gave her a quick hug, they couldn't spend much time out here, Jaune knew that sooner or later Blake and Pyrrha would run across other students and then who knew how much things would change. "Yang you can take you time, catch up with Pyrrha make her your partner I'll deal with Blake, I'll make sure she's nearby for you when you feel like you can do this." Jaune smiled at Yang trying to raise her spirits.

Yang smiled, "You know that was my plan also." Yang knew she couldn't approach Blake it was two hard but if Jaune was her partner then she knew she would have time to get past her problems, she hoped.

"Do you know where Pyrrha is?"

Yang nodded. "She passed here only a couple minutes ago."

"Then you need to get moving." Jaune turned Yang around and gave her a gentle push in the direction and was glad to see she started moving forwards on her own. Once Yang was out of sight Jaune sagged to the ground and went back to sucking in air. _Come on body, we have dealt with being a little out of breath before let's go!_ Jaune got to his feet legs feeling shaky from the exertion earlier. A couple miles on open terrain might have been a cakewalk but he had run here through a forest cutting through the brush and avoiding trails and instead of just a couple miles, it felt like he instead had crossed the breadth of the forest a couple times over with the terrain he had been forced to deal with.

Jaune looked at the trail beneath his feet, he knew this path and unfortunately it led almost straight to where the relics for the trial were held, groaning Jaune dove into the tree line again he needed to move fast and if he ran across Pyrrha and Yang he would be forced to stop so instead he moved as fast as he could through the dense undergrowth along the trail.

* * *

Yang move along the trail, even if she was to catch up with Pyrrha she didn't move forward with much haste, she was more focused on chastising herself for failing to speak with Blake again.

Yang wasn't paying attention to her surrounding but her negative emotions were causing the Grim of the forest to be drawn to her. Yang noticed something was wrong when all noise vanished from around her, She knew the signs immediately and began to scan the treeline trying to find where the Grim might be hiding. _Great time to feel sorry for yourself Yang! Let's just have a deep internal crisis in the middle of a Grimm infested Forest, fucking great idea!_ Yang heard movement off to her left and rolled forward in time to dodge a clumsy swipe from a Beowulf, Yang stood ready to attack when several more emerged from the trees. _Okay, still easy odds they're just run of the mill Beowulf's nothing special._ Yang heard a loud snap as the canopy above her began to crack under the weight of something large. Yang looked up to see a very familiar Nevermore staring down at her. _Okay never mind these are terrible odds._

Yang fired Ember Celica and propelled herself away from the giant flying Grimm and along the path, Yang rounded the first corner and almost collided with Pyrrha only through a quick twist and Yang assumed a little help from Pyrrha's Semblance she assumed saved them from a collision. "Hi, I guess were partners, I suggest as your new partner we make ourselves scarce!" Yang grabbed Pyrrha and pulled her along.

"What are we running from?" Pyrrha looked behind her and didn't see anything.

"Oh, back there nothing really just a few Beowulf." Yang continued running as Pyrrha faltered.

"I'm sure we could handle a couple, Beowulf." Pyrrha started running again when Yang didn't stop or even slow down.

"Yeah, there's also that thing!" Almost on the cue of Yang mentioning it the Giant Nevermore screeched and past overhead.

"OH!" Pyrrha's eyes widened as she now understood the reason for the running, she looked up at the Grimm and knew even as skilled as the two of them were neither was equipped properly to deal with such a large Grimm let alone one capable of flight.

* * *

Jaune didn't know where these Grimm came from but shortly after he had entered the undergrowth the place had become thick with Beowulf. Jaune fought when he had to but for the most part, he would just dodge their clumsy attacks and keep moving forward.

Jaune heard fighting ahead of himself and from the lack of noise from the shots he knew it wasn't Yang, it might have been Pyrrha but he doubted she would bother to waste ammunition on something like a Beowulf or an Ursa which left the only person farther ahead on the trail to be Blake.

Wasting no time he cut towards the sounds of fighting and broke through the tree line into a scene of Blake fighting a Quartet of Ursa's nothing she couldn't handle really. Jaune ran up behind a distracted Ursa and quickly downed it permanently with a sword through the back of its neck.

Jaune turned to his next opponent as he caught Blake out of the corner of his eye dispatch one as well with an attack similar to what he had used. Jaune closed with his opponent ducking under its slow swings and cut at the beasts legs, scoring a hit the Ursa backpedaled trying to correct its balance with the muscles in on of its legs severed, Jaune gave it no such time and quickly sliced through its chest, the body starting to disintegrate before it even hit the ground.

Turning he was prepared to help Blake if she needed it but the girl was already finished with her second Ursa as well.

Blake turned to him and gave him a small smile as thanks for the help.

"Uh, Hi, I guess this means were partners." Not the best introduction ever but at least the circumstances weren't forced if he didn't count the fact that he had been chasing her since leaving Yang. Jaune stood up straight trying to not look to winded and pretty sure he failed, his clothes were marred with both blood and dirt and his jeans and shirt had holes all over from his less than graceful landing. "Uh we should be moving I have been chased halfway across the forest at this point my landing end up with me fighting Beowulf's or running this entire time." Jaune shot Blake an exhausted smile before he took off down the path as a dozen or more Beowulf's broke through the tree line from the direction he had appeared from. "Names Jaune Arc by the way!"

"Blake... Blake Belladonna." She watched the exhausted and ragged man smile at her name and continue running. Blake considered herself in pretty good shape and doubted the blond man running with her had much left but she found herself struggling to keep up with the pace 'Jaune' was setting. "Do you know where you are going?" Blake wasn't sure but she felt confident that he knew where he was going.

" A little bit, when I thought I lost the Grimm earlier I climbed a tree to try and see if I could spot the Temple we were told to head to, I spotted a structure this way and have just been heading this way since." Jaune replied between breaths as he ran. Jaune tried to sound nonchalant he knew Blake was universally suspicious of just about everyone.

The two runners broke into a clearing and Blake sighed in relief that Jaune had not been running randomly as she instantly spotted a structure a short distance away. The two continued their dash forward with Blake glancing worriedly between the tree line and Jaune as the exertion was finally showing and his steps were beginning to falter, but with some luck, the pack of Beowulf hounding them never emerged from the tree line.

They reached the building and Jaune collapsed on the spot, Blake made a move to try and help him but he just waved her off. "I'm fine just a little out of breath I'll be ready for my next marathon in a minute." Blake smiled at her collapsed partner and looked at her surroundings since he appeared fine just short of breath.

The Temple wasn't much to look at it was a half run down building made of some white stone that the forest was slowly trying to reclaim, Blake noticed the Relic immediately or Relics she guess's looking at the overly large chess pieces. _Both Black and White represented, no Pawns and no King or Queen either._

"So are these the Relics"

Blake nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden noise and nearness, Jaune was standing nearly beside her and she hadn't even heard him, not to mention he had recovered from his exhaustion with remarkable speed. "I guess so, maybe it's how the teams are decided? It could be our team gets placed with whoever takes the second copy of whatever piece we choose."

Jaune raised an eyebrow at how perfect Blakes guess had been even if it might be obvious after that fact. "Well, in that case, any suggestions on which Piece we should take?" Jaune hoped blake would pass the responsibility to him he knew that Yang said she probably would but Jaune couldn't assume anything at the moment.

"No, you pick something I'm fine with anything." Blake responded as she turned toward the tree line hearing multiple explosions and got ready for a fight.

Jaune smiled knowing it would be Ren and Nora arriving next. "How about the horse then?" Jaune held up the Knight piece for Blake to see.

"Those are chess pieces Jaune it's not a horse it's a Knight." Blake corrected her partner.

"Nah, it's a horse." Jaune stared back at her sending her a goofy looking grin which he was glad to see earned him at least half of a smile from Blake. "I like it and since you don't care what we take I'm picking the horse, besides anyone who picks a horse must be a good person, name one person who doesn't like horses, you can't can you I bet." Jaune smiled as Blake just shook her head and looked toward the newcomers a dark haired teen and redhead.

Jaune tied the Knight piece to his belt and moved to stand beside Blake. "So... I guess were done here." Jaune looked around hoping to see Yang appear but instead saw Weiss and Ruby break through the tree line being chased by the swarm of Beowulf that had probably been chasing him not too long ago. _Huh, does this mean were not going to get the Nevermore?_

* * *

"Where did these things come from." Weiss shouted as she ran using her Glyphs to keep up with Ruby's Semblance.

"I don't know but were finally in the open we could fight them now." Ruby responded, to be fair Ruby wanted to fight them when they first were attacked but Weiss had made the good suggestion that neither of there weapons would be great for fighting in such close quarters and Ruby had agreed.

"There are a lot of them, but we should be able to deal with them now that we have space to work." Weiss used a Glyph to stop herself and prepare for a fight, near her she didn't look but heard Ruby fire her weapon a couple time and then streak past her in a red blur that hit the front line of Grimm like a very violent top. At Atlas Weiss had read and seen such weapons but never had to opportunity to watch one in combat and she was impressed. _Just because I'm impressed doesn't mean I'm just going to sit back and watch._ Weiss aimed her attack well away from where Ruby was fighting and soon large shards of ice were raining from the sky decimating the already confused Beowulf's.

Shortly the forty odd pack was reduced to a black smear on the ground that was slowly vanishing into a black haze.

"That was amazing Weiss! I have never seen someone use Dust like that before! Is it part of your Semblance or is it some special trick they teach in Atlas." Ruby bounced around Weiss bombarding her with questions about her weapon and what it could do.

Weiss wasn't even sure when Ruby had time to look at her fight for how fast the girl had been moving. "Atlas might be more advanced with Dust than the other nations but what I did was not anything special," Weiss said modestly no wanting Ruby to have some weird inflated opinion of her or her abilities. "Anyways, you were amazing out there as well I have never witnessed someone of your...size? use such a large weapon nor with as much skill."

Ruby blushed at the compliment from her friend. "My Uncle says my Semblance has a lot to do with how I use my weapon, it... it is kind of heavy." Ruby looked at the ground kicking a few rocks around. She looked up when she heard quiet laughter coming from Weiss.

"Come on Ruby let's get moving we have an audience." Weiss motioned towards the group standing by the ruined building.

Ruby's head popped up and looked in the direction. "JAUNE!" Ruby vanished in an instant and was standing next to Jaune. "Did you see that fight Jaune I used a bunch of the pointers you gave me and it really helped did you see how well I turned when we started to fight." Ruby rambled on about the fight smiling the entire time as she watched Jaune nod along and praise her skill.

"God's you're fast." Weiss spoke as she approached the group a couple minutes after Ruby had been there talking Jaune's ear off. "Maybe next time give me a little warning."

"Oh I'm so sorry Weiss just Jaune helped me so much with some of my fighting issues and I really wanted to talk with him once I realized he saw the fight." Ruby moved to her partner's side and the two went inside to select their Relic.

Jaune watched them head inside and was glad he had taken advantage of arriving first and Blake's distraction to secure both White Knight pieces on the off chance Ruby beat Yang here since she would normally pick the Knight piece herself.

* * *

"Great day for a nice relaxing death sprint through the woods right Pyrrha." Yang cursed her luck, they had found a cave which allowed them to hide from the Nevermore only to find out the cave was where a Deathstalker lived and now they were being chased by both giant Grimm.

"Agreed, I can't think of anything I would enjoy more than running for my life right now." Pyrrha smiled as she ran, happy that her partner was in good humor even in less than ideal circumstances.

Yang laughed loudly as she pushed forward breaking through the tree line and glad when she noticed where she was, doubly glad when she saw the reinforcement's standing near the temple."Pyrrha! The temple! Get us some help." Yang turned to slow down the Deathstalker after Pyrrha nodded and pushed towards the Temple.

Pyrrha hadn't even reached the temple before the figures standing there moved to intercept her, turning she looked to see Yang dancing around the Deathstalker avoiding its attack's but doing no damage when she tried to retaliate. Pyrrha scanned the sky looking for the Nevermore but it was absent currently, feeling someone move up beside her she looked up to see Jaune as Ruby and Weiss sprinted past to back up Yang.

"I see you two found the real party, anything else chasing you guys?" Jaune asked Pyrrha wondering if he should be expecting the giant Nevermore as well.

"There is a Nevermore as well, I think it was circling around the last time we saw it." Pyrrha looked off in the distance and saw the great avian appear in the distance.

Jaune followed her line of sight and spotted the Grimm also. _Great I haven't fought the Deathstalker since my first life and even with Ruby and Weiss getting along better I still have to deal with that damn nevermore, and unlike my other lives where it would be eight of us versus the Nevermore now we actually have to split up again._ "Well, this should be interesting, come on maybe we can deal with the Deathstalker before your bird friend gets too close."

Yang sensed her backup arrive in the form of Nora pelting the Deathstalker with grenades while a sheet of ice formed underneath it. Yang looked back to see Jaune giving direction to the other people there. Yang understood what Jaune wanted to accomplish immediately and pressed her attack and it paid off immediately as the Deathstalker lost it's footing on the ice field beneath itself and collapsed, with the monster struggling to get back to its feet Ruby appeared in a flash of rose petals and severed one of its front claws and before the beast could react to it's missing limb Nora smashed the other breaking it into a ruined mess with the force of the blow. Yang moved back from the now thrashing beast and watched as a giant shard of ice buried itself into its skull ending its life.

"Yang, you and Pyrrha go grab a relic then we need to get out of here before the Nevermore gets back." Jaune shouted across the battlefield he hoped that Yang would be able to find the second White Knight piece before Pyrrha grabbed something else. Turning back to the group Jaune looked everyone over making sure everyone was alright. "You two!" Jaune pointed at Ren and Nora. "Sorry to just order you around back there but introductions will have to wait we have a Nevermore on its way and unless someone here is holding out on me we lack proper weapons to deal with it.

"We're back," Pyrrha said waving a Knight statue towards the group, to which Jaune smiled in relief.

"Alright, everyone stick together and let's get back to the cliffs we might have a chance if we can limit the directions it can attack us." Jaune smiled as everyone nodded and started the long run back to the cliffs, Jaune felt someone stand beside him.

"Are you going to be able to make another run?" Blake asked concerned about her partner, no matter what he might outwardly show she didn't believe he had had enough time to recover from the all he had told her he experienced.

"I'm going to have to be I guess." Jaune looked past Blake to the closing Nevermore. "Falling behind is not an option, come on we need to go." Jaune left Blake behind knowing she would be right behind him.

* * *

The run had been exhausting Yang looked at the group and briefly looked around in concern as she couldn't see Blake or Jaune only when she was about to head back and look for them did the two emerge from the trees. Yang sighed with relief, they were alright but Jaune looked exhausted no doubt from the massive distances he had been forced to cover today at a pace she didn't even want to imagine he had forced on himself.

Overhead the Nevermore screeched and launched a barrage of feathers at the group forcing them to take cover. Yang watched as it circled again to launch another attack. "You! Girl with the grenade launcher! Do you think you can force it away from a moment to let us get closer to the cliff face?" Yang struggled to not use Nora's name she doubted anyone would even notice at a time like this but Jaune had stressed that little things could become bigger issues.

"Sure thing Commander!" Nora giggled excitedly as she broke from cover and started to bombard the Nevermore eventually landing enough grenades to force the beast to turn and give up on its current approach but it was already circling around for another pass.

"Will Jaune make it? That's still a lot of open terrains and he look's awful!" Pyrrha commented looking back at Jaune barely staying upright with the help of a pillar and his partner.

"Jaune's made of some tough stuff he will be alright besides he doesn't need to make it any farther this close to the cliffs plus this ruin we might have a chance to deal with this bird, come on. Ruby, Weiss head to the ruin get up high let's try and force it to the ground." Yang shouted as she ran by where the two had taken cover.

"Weiss if we can knock it into the cliff or to the ground can you make enough ice to keep it there?"

"If it is stopped for even a moment I can do that much yes." Weiss responded understanding what Yang intended.

"Ruby, Pyrrha go for its eyes I'll deal with getting it to the ground." Yang watched her partner and sister nod and split up to get vantage points to hit the Nevermores eyes. Yang then began climbing the structure making her way to the top to be ready for her moment to strike.

The Nevermore slowly turned and bore down on the group again in an instant Yang saw the birds eyes explode into gore, one torn apart by a bullet the other had a spear clearly embedded into it. The Nevermores flight patch became erratic with the lose of its vision but it was too late for the Grimm to do anything, Yang had leapt from her perch and activate her Semblance even having suffered no damage the Semblance still supplied an increase in strength it wasn't much but it was enough to send the Giant Nevermore crashing into the ground where Weiss was waiting.

Instantly the Grimm's wing's were coated in a layer of ice trapping it on the ground where with its vision already gone made the Grimm all but dead already, Yang watched as Ren, Nora and Blake finished dispatching the creature Nora being the heavy hitter she was had dealt the blow that finally ended to Nevermore.

* * *

"Weiss Schnee, Nora Valkyrie, Ruby Rose and Li Ren you four collected the White rook pieces from this day forward you will be known as team WNRR or Winter lead by Weiss Schnee." Ozpin looked over the group and was pleased, he had been concerned about rumor's of Weiss's personality but so far had been shown to be wrong and was interested in what she might accomplish if placed in charge of a team.

"Jaune Arc, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xaio Long and Pyrrha Nikos you four collected the White Knight pieces," Ozpin noticed a sheepish grin on Jaunes face and a small smile of satisfaction from Blake's at the mention of their relic. "from this day forward you will be know as team ABYN or Auburn lead by Jaune Arc."

Initiation finished Ozpin retired to his office for the day, sitting at his desk he pulled out a tablet and look at the footage of the Initiation more specifically he watched Jaune during the Initiation.

"Interesting, very interesting."

* * *

 **So apparently I lied and I have another chapter ready to go for you guys before I leave.**

 **But really is anyone going to be upset with me for giving you more to read?**

 **Ok Initiation is done and I quite enjoyed writing this chapter something to be said at the rate I release chapters if I enjoy the chapter I'm writing it gets done quickly.**

 **Hmm, what's next well I have a couple plan's going forward some more fun with the villain club, unfortunately that means more Mercury but that also means more Torchwick sadly no Neo though.**

 **Anyways this time I for real doubt I will have any time to write between now and the weekend so please enjoy the chapter and feel free to tell me what you think!**


	13. Chapter 13

Jaune had thought sleep would come easily to him after the team naming ceremony, alas he wasn't so lucky, it didn't take a particularly observant person to see Yang was struggling and as soon as she could she excused herself and vanished. Jaune wished he knew where Yang had run off too if Vale was open to students he was sure he could find her at any number of bars that wouldn't care about serving booze to a minor. Instead, Yang had hidden herself somewhere at Beacon and he trying to find that one special spot she had found.

Jaune knew the school better than anyone and understood if a person wished to remain hidden either intentionally or unintentionally they could do so for a very long time. Even longer since it was only Jaune looking for her, he had spun a pretty flimsy lie to Pyrrha and Blake of Yang's hasty retreat and told them not to worry and he would find out what was wrong. _The thing is I know what's wrong and that really isn't helping me is it. If Yang cannot even tell me the story behind Blake how can I help her?_ Jaune rounded a corner and entered another empty hallway, Jaune flipped open his scroll and looked at the time. _So it's almost midnight and that puts this search at almost six hours and I've barely covered half the school._

Jaune walked past a row of empty classroom's and not seeing the Blonde moved to the next hallway and repeated the process, empty hallways followed by empty classrooms. _Why does Beacon even have this many classrooms's anyways? Was there some point in the past where these served a valid purpose?_ Jaune turned another corner and ran into a person he would rather avoid.

"Good Evening, Professor Ozpin." Jaune stood straight and addressed the Headmaster with respect hoping the man would respond in kind and continue on afterward.

"Good evening to you as well Mr. Arc! Could you please follow me?"

Jaune knew that even phrased as a question he had no real choice in the matter. "I'm sorry for being out roaming the hall's so late, especially on the first night here but Yang has been missing since shortly after the team naming ceremony." Jaune fell into step behind Ozpin knowing he had no hope of escaping this situation.

"I see so I assume I would find MS. Nikos and Ms. Belladonna roaming the halls elsewhere as well?"

"No, you would not." Jaune looked to Ozpin trying to get a read on what the man was thinking but much like his other lives unless Ozpin was distressed he was a rock betraying nothing. "I am currently searching alone."

"I see... if you are concerned about Ms. Long wouldn't increasing the number of people searching aid you, though? I am sure Ms. Nikos would be happy to help search for her partner, Ms. Belladonna would also not be averse to helping a teammate I expect. So why have you chosen to take on this task alone? Beacon is a large school you could be out here all night and possibly not find her."

"That is... complicated to explain." _This is going poorly._

"Many things are Mr. Arc, but try me I would like to understand you better."

"Why would you want to understand me better?" Jaune played dumb he needed time to think and unfortunately out thinking Ozpin was a difficult task.

"Well for starter's your arrival on Patch a few years back was an interesting story, as is the time you spent there, but I am less interested in that than I am of how you handled yourself in the Emerald Forest today. Your travels through the forest were recorded, every students were actually but you stood out to me."

 _That is valuable knowledge if I'm forced to repeat this again, it is obvious they could track us but I didn't know they recorded everything as well._ Jaune looked at Ozpin apprehensively. "Stood out how?"

"In a number of ways, but the one I'm most interested in is your relationship with Ms. Xaio Long. During your time in the forest, you avoided every other student, and you technically did not break any rules of the event by doing so either." Ozpin cut off the young man seeing he was about to speak to defend himself. "When we subject students to the Forest trial, we teachers understand that most students will make plans to become partners with people they already know this process allows them to do so if they are lucky and find each other. You might have taken the luck out of the equation but the end result was the same, you tracked down your friend and made her your partner, or not as the case may be, but instead you sent her to become partners with Ms. Nikos while you tracked down Ms. Belladonna. That Mr. Arc is what interests me!" Ozpin stopped walking for the first time near an area of Beacon Jaune recognized to be one of many of the school's many gardens.

"I'm not sure I can answer that in a way that would make sense... I... we," _This is hopeless, I have no reasonable way to answer this and there is no way I'm telling him about my Semblance I don't want to live any of those lives again._ Jaune shuddered at the thought, even on lives where he convinced Ozpin of his power's something would go wrong his prediction would be just a little incorrect and it would spell catastrophe, and then Jaune would be locked up as Ozpin would not be able to trust him with his knowledge of his plans. "This is a problem with my Semblance." Jaune sagged his shoulders in apparent defeat.

"Oh?" Ozpin turned to look directly at Jaune for the first time since their meeting. "I know to some, Semblances are a private matter, due in part to the way some people's Semblances work. If you care to share maybe I could help you with your Semblance."

"The thing is Professor my Semblance gives me a certain 'Insight' into people around me," _Not technically a lie, a few thousand lives and it would be hard not so understand others._ "It also in rare instances gives me 'Insight' into events. Though with Yang there was an accident I guess I would call it." _Still not technically a lie and he does seem to be listening rather intently._ "After meeting Yang and spending time with her I shared my Semblance with her or more accurately she experienced something extremely distressing to her that she has never shared the whole truth of what she experienced with me." Jaune finished speaking and waited for Ozpin's reaction hoping his vague description of a Semblance that doesn't truly exist might be enough to get him to reduce his interest in himself.

"That seems to be an interesting Semblance, but the way you explained it makes it sound like your, not in full control of it? Has what you experienced with Ms. Xaio Long ever happened before?" Ozpin had a great many questions but decided that they would have to wait for a more appropriate time, for now, he had a few specific ones that required answers.

"It has never happened before no, and I also do not know exactly what caused it to happen in the first place." Jaune forced himself to keep a straight face at the fact that his hastily thought up lie was somehow working.

"Do you know anything about Ms. Xaio Long experienced?"

"I know a little but the thing is my 'Insight' into events and people it is an in the moment type ability I cannot tell you about events that haven't happened yet but with Yang we experienced an event, something I don't feel comfortable sharing I'm sorry Professor but towards the end of the experience I found Yang, and well, Blake also, the experience ended shortly after me reuniting with Yang. From what I could piece together Yang was saved by Blake but at the cost of her own life." Jaune shuffled his feet at the end and stared awkwardly around the area.

"I think I understand your situation a little better now, but before I leave you I am curious what does your 'Insight' say about me?"

Jaune was actually taken aback by the directness of Ozpin's question he took a moment to consider his response. "I feel like I should be able to trust you... but not completely there is a hidden part of yourself... not sinister... but also not completely benign." Jaune finished his response and hoped that his response wouldn't cost him too much.

"Not quite the response I hoped for but also not untrue." Ozpin stared at the boy and sighed at how accurate the young man's depiction felt true at least in how he had treated him up till this point. "Well I must be going, If you head into this garden you will find Ms. Xaio Long shortly." With that Ozpin turned and left the way he had come from.

 _You bastard!_ Jaune turned and with a quick grin at Ozpin's weird way of helping proceeded into the garden. It didn't take Jaune long to find Yang and it also explained why Ozpin was confident he would find her in the garden, Yang was sleeping underneath a tree, Jaune approached quietly and sat down beside her, he pulled out his scroll and sent a quick message to Pyrrha to inform her he had finally found Yang and they would return when they were able too.

 _I wish I could help you, Yang. If I was smarter or paid more attention I should have at least tried to talk you out of this plan to be teammates with Blake again what was I thinking, we could have put her on another team that way she would still be close and you would have had the time you needed. How many times did I have to forcibly stop you from either hurting yourself or throwing your life away needlessly against the White Fang?_

Jaune sat in silence as time slowly crawled by minutes turned to hours and gradually the new day began and Yang began to stir awake. "Have a good rest Yang?" Jaune asked when he was confident she was awake, Jaune himself felt exhausted but he refused to rest he needed to sort this out.

"Jaune! What are you doing out here?" Yang hopped to her feet waking up quickly and looked towards Jaune and immediately noticed how miserable and exhausted he looked so much so that Yang was sure it was through willpower alone that kept him awake.

"Well this is a public place that is open to all students of Beacon, it most definitely is not a bedroom for distraught teenagers who are avoiding a choice they made." Jaune stood and stared down Yang he was too tired to be nice about this and he was confident trying nice again would not get any results. "I should have put a stop to this in the forest when we still had a chance too but now, now were stuck with a team you can't even be around unless forced to it seems." Jaune tried not to regret being so harsh with Yang but he was out of options, he either had to make this team work somehow or this life would just be another failure and this time he would be losing a true ally and friend.

"I just need more time I... I know I can do this, you have to believe me!" Yang shrank away from her friend she felt no true anger from him only a deep disappointment that made her feel worse than any anger ever could.

"I know you can do this, I do believe that Yang, but time is not something we have very much of, It is only a matter of time before our teammates notice something odd with your behaviour, and to make matters worse I had to tell Ozpin a lie about what my Semblance is and now your roped into it as well." Jaune couldn't be bothered to try and be angry choosing rather to sit back down and stare into space to tired was his mind to even focus on the matters before him.

"Jaune... I'm sorry... for... for everything!" Yang made no move to join Jaune on the ground or to leave she stood firmly rooted to the spot staring at her friend with a looked that was filled with concern and grief.

Jaune stood and walked up to Yang, she was visibly trembling from the emotions she had burdened herself with. "You shouldn't ever be sorry Yang, you have done nothing wrong, not to me or our friends, I know when I first told you of my Semblance I referred to it as a curse but it isn't, I have discovered moments of my life that are perfect, and those times make these repeats all worth it. I spent so much time focusing on the bad remembering the worst of what I have experienced, relationships I have lost, the tortures I experienced drove me to some pretty dark places. Places I struggled to return from and honestly struggle after every death not to fall back into. I'm not sure when I started looking to the good again, the perfect moments, but it helps Yang it truly does they help me confront my life every time, they bolster me into doing everything I need to and more to make it so that my friends and family will experience those events with me. You might only have this one life with me and I don't want to see you waste it hiding yourself away not just for yourself but for your friends, I don't know what happened to you and Blake during the attack on Signal but I know that Blake saved your life, by what means only you know, but would that Blake want you to be the way you are now, or would she want to be the way she would have remembered you?" Jaune grabbed one of Yang's hand's and gave it a reassuring squeeze glad to see Yang had stopped shaking somewhat.

"She...she would want me to how she remembered me," Yang said squeezing Jaune's hand back. "But what if I mess something up, what if I end up making this Blake's life worse or what if I'm responsible for her death why should I risk her happiness for me to be selfish and wanting my friend back?" Yang started shaking again even as she felt Jaune's grip tighten and a second hand enclose around it.

"Yang, I can say without a shadow of a doubt Blake's life is always better because of you and your team, team RWBY, you all have given so much for each other so many times and in so many ways, for every time one of you has sacrificed for another they have sacrificed back again and again, If you can build your bond with Blake again no matter what happens to you or her in this life I know neither of you will regret it, the only thing you will regret is failing to do that, you might find excuses to justify keeping your distance from her but in the end when she is gone you will regret it!" Jaune forced Yang to look him in the eye's and smiled when he saw a small fire of resolve burning somewhere in the depths of her eyes. "Now I don't know about you but we have our first lesson with Port this morning and I would like to get there early and find a nice spot to sleep through it!" With that Jaune turned and headed back to their dorm to change though he didn't expect Yang to walk the entire way firmly holding his hand in such a way that even with the scowl he was sending everyone they passed he was sure there would be rumors shortly.

On their travel back to there Dorm room Jaune filled Yang in on the details of the lie he had told Ozpin just in case the man looked to ask something in regard's to him about it.

* * *

Yang looked to Jaune and he was true to his word he got Team ABYN to Ports class early and promptly fell asleep at his desk leaving Yang to come up with an excuse for him but surprisingly neither Pyrrha or Blake seemed too concerned about their leaders actions and even professor Port seemed to ignore Jaune sleeping through his entire first lesson. Yang looked around the room and the only people who seemed to even notice the sleeping form of Jaune were Ruby and Weiss, though both were wearing different expressions. Ruby looked at her friend with a great deal of concern, while Weiss kept sending him looks of annoyance that hinted strongly to the Weiss Yang remembered from her other life. Eventually Port got to the end of his lecture and Yang knew she was about to see Weiss fight a Boarbatusk.

"MR. ARC since you have seen fit to pay so much attention to your first day I figured you would like an opportunity to display some of your skill as a Huntsman."

The entire room turned their eyes to where they expected to see Jaune still sleeping away expecting him to be given a detention at any moment only to be surprised that Jaune was not in his seat anymore, as Port had called his name Jaune stood on reflex grabbed Crocea Mors which he had insisted on bringing to the lesson even though it was not a combat lesson and was already walking down the stair's to stand before the shrouded cage.

"I would be happy to display my abilities thank you for this opportunity Professor!" Jaune turned and drew his blade.

"Erm, Yes right, I'm glad to see such initiative." Port looked over Jaune, he was confused, was this the same individual who had slept through his entire lecture. Port let his weapon fall severing the lock and releasing the Boarbatusk. "Now a Boarbatusk is a very heavily armored Grimm and despite its armor, it is also very swift, most huntsmen would..." Port's voice trailed off as he stood dumbstruck.

Jaune stood alone in the center of the classroom the Boarbatusk already turning to dust.

It was uncommon for anyone aside from Weiss to face this beast but Jaune knew sleeping through the lecture would get himself volunteered and he came prepared. The fight was almost sad at this point, Jaune would sidestep the beasts first charge and slice through the tendons of its hind legs which would cripple it he would then follow that up with an underhand stroke under its unprotected throat ending the miserable Grimms life in an instant. "look to cripple such a fast opponent first and then strike a fatal blow when the enemy could not retaliate!" Jaune finished Ports sentence for him.

"Indeed that was marvelous work my boy, I could not have done that better myself. Everyone, please remember this moment, Jaune just displayed a level of skill and professionalism that many huntsmen strive to achieve." Port watched as the class filed out of the room and paid particular interest to Jaune and team ABYN. _Quite the interesting team, two champion fighters and now a leader who has the skill and focus of true huntsmen, I wonder could Ms. Belladonna be someone to keep an eye on as well._ Pleased with how his morning went Port readied himself for his next lecture.

"That strike was quite effective Jaune, have you dealt with a Boarbatusk before?" Weiss asked as the two teams made their way to their next lesson.

"Nope, literally the first one I have seen in my life." Jaune smiled at Weiss even as he looked past her to watch Yang who was still moving with the group speaking with Pyrrha and a least walking beside Blake. _Well, that is at least an improvement._

"Then how did you strike with such certainty if you were incorrect you might have been seriously injured." Weiss felt like Jaune was laughing at her by the way he responded so casually about the encounter.

"That is a possibility yes but like Ruby told you before I am extremely well read, once I identified what I was fighting I put to use the most commonly used tactic I have read about and as you can see the results speak for themselves," Jaune responded and was happy to see that Weiss seemed to accept this answer as many common Grimm types have entire sections of libraries devoted to how to identify what you are facing and proper tactics and means to deal with each type of Grimm depending on what type of weapon a huntsman or Huntress had at their disposal.

"You read?" Jaune almost jumped out of his skin when Blake asked the question standing slightly closer than Jaune felt comfortable with her being.

"Uh, Yeah, I read just about anything I can get my hands on," Jaune answered after taking half a step back from Blake glad she didn't follow.

Blake looked at her partner with an appraising eye wondering if anything really meant 'anything'. "Did you bring any books with you to Beacon?" Blake asked with interest, Jaune and Yang hadn't unpacked last night with Pyrrha and herself, Yang had excused herself early and Jaune had left shortly afterward to meet with her and did not return until early morning holding hands and looking very much like a couple.

"Uh, no I didn't I spent my last few years at Signal camping which isn't a great environment to keep books in good condition and I traveled light when packing for Beacon." Jaune could see Blake's eyes fall in disappointment. "Though I do know several great shops down in Vale a couple of them tucked out of the way that usually have pretty diverse stock. We could make a trip this weekend I can bring you to my favorite shop 'Tukson's Book Trade' very nice man runs the store, has at least one copy of just about everything."Jaune was happy to see Blake's eyes brighten up at the suggestion. "Pyrrha, Yang you two interested in a shopping trip to Vale this weekend?" Jaune watched as Pyrrha and Yang moved closer to the group and while Yang didn't add much to the planning between the four of them they made plans for the weekend.

* * *

Cinder stood in the middle of a large room to which she was one of four occupants.

"She's back far far ahead of schedule I wonder has she completed her task if she has does that mean it's time for phase two already?" a mad man's voice pierced the silence of the room.

"Please this is Cinder were talking about, she talk's and talk's and talk's but that is all she is good for. I doubt she even managed to even take care of her personal goal." a more sophisticated voice replied.

"Do you mean she 'FAILED' oh I hope mistress allows me the honors of dealing with this failure." replied the madman.

"She knows the consequences of failure, she would not return here unless she has something to offer in exchange for her life." the sophisticated voice spoke mockingly.

"Oh, I wonder what she could offer that would make her risk her life?" The mad man asked to no one instead leaning forward staring intently at the lone figure.

"It doesn't matter, Salem will either spare her or not none of this is our concern and we have our orders." Spoke the third figure a large man who sounded what a person would imagine a bear would speak.

The other two voices stopped at the third man's entrance into the conversation and with a quick look at each other, the three left the room leaving Cinder alone for the time being.

Cinder didn't relax now that she was alone she was made to wait until Salem was ready to speak with her and she would be ready for that moment, she stood in the center of the room and waited in silence that over time became deafening. Eventually the door she knew to expect Salem to enter from opened and the being know as Salem entered the room.

"Cinder, how disappointed I am in you! All your talk of wanting power willing to do anything and everything to claim it and you ran." Cinder wasn't sure how Salem already knew what she was going to report but it did not bode well for herself. "I gave you the opportunity to take the power you desire, and for that opportunity, you promised me something, something that without the power is impossible for you to achieve!" Salem came to stand only a few feet from Cinder as she spoke. "But on the fact of all your failures so far and knowing what happen's to people who fail you still chose to return, you know that begging for your life is pointless, mercy is something I will never grant, you must have something that you view as valuable as your life, so what is it that you think you can say that will earn you your life?" Salem stood there her countenance seeming to pull the darkness of the room to her making already frightening visage truly horrifying.

"You have new enemies, people who halted my attack on the Fall Maiden, but they are also not allies of Ozpin, they did not fight Qrow Branwen when he arrived on the scene but they also fled before Qrow or the maiden could speak with either of them." Cinder forced out the information through a parched throat she had been standing here so long.

"You think this information is enough for your life? If you do then I have wasted my time with you." Salem raised a hand and another door sounded to open. "I... I have plans for Vale and Ozpin in the works, even without the power of the Maiden I can still fulfill my promise to you!" Salem looked at Cinder and then the door which had stopped opening and after a long moment, the door clicked shut again.

"I fail to see how you could possibly still hope to fulfill your promise, you lack strength, and without that your plan to bring the extremist Adam Taurus to your side and more importantly his troops," As Salem spoke dark tendrils of energy lashed out from the corners of the room grabbing Cinder and suspending her in the air. "But sadly as incompetent as you have proven to be you can still be useful." From the shadowy depths of the chamber's ceiling, an enormous arachnid Grimm descended, the monstrosity had the body of a spider but its torso and head were humanoid in appearance.

Cinder for all her worth did not struggle when the bonds were lashed to her form and aside from a nervous look to the newest Grimm she forced herself to remain calm.

"My dear, I have need of one of your children perhaps a stronger specimen than last time!" The spider Grimm retreated into the roof again but moments later a much smaller Grimm descended in its place, the new Grimm was fully arachnid and was the size of a grapefruit. "Ah, splendid! Now Cinder I would like you to meet my insurance you will fulfill your promise to me." The Grimm landed on Cinder's shoulder and crawled its way to her back between her shoulder blade and once there it tore through her clothing and skin once it made an opening it crawled inside its new home and aside from the black oozing hole the Grimm despite its size did not cause any weird disfiguration.

Cinder gagged at the intrusion to her body, she had felt no pain when the monster tore through her flesh, nor when it crawled inside but now she was keenly aware of its presence and the feeling was nauseating but at the same time she felt incredible strength flow through her.

"What...what is this?"

"Like I said Cinder this is my insurance that you will fulfill your promise, the Grimm inside you will feed you power though please do be careful unlike the maiden's power this creature is limited by mortal means, if you exhaust its powers completely it will start draining your's and well I'm sure you understand what that means for you!" Salem spoke as she paced around Cinders still elevated form. "Now I need you to return to Vale and complete your promise, I will have transport made ready for you when you make if you make it out of my home!" With that Salem left the room and the tendrils suspending Cinder ceased dropping her unceremoniously on the floor.

 _What did she mean by If?_ Cinder tried to stand but she could not focus on her limbs or any part of her body, every time she sought to move her body would not respond. _What is this I can feel my body I can feel the power why can I not move._

* * *

 **And I'm back with a kinda short chapter.  
**

 **I had more about Cinder and the council of stereotypical villains but choose to cut it in favor of finishing this chapter and letting me start work on the next immediately.**

 **So Jaune and Ozpin talked and Jaune technically didn't lie... That was quite honestly the most fun part to write and I have been waiting for the chapter when I could have that conversation. I actually wanted to do it much sooner but felt like I was rushing it.**

 **For those wondering why Jaune isn't more careful about his interactions with his friends it's basically he doesn't notice anymore. The big critical events of his lives are such a huge focus that he concentrates on them so much he forgets about little things quite often. Weiss is going to be the most critical of this on their interactions which is why I have made a point that she is the one's perspective I give when Jaune is being too comfortable in doing a task as simple as gathering her breakfast or dealing with a Boarbatusk instantaneously.**

 **Anyways I'm home from my travels I haven't started writing my next chapter and am being bogged down with other work currently but I hope to have another update ready for you this week.**


	14. Chapter 14

"As I promised I save the best for last" Jaune opened the door to 'Tukson's Book Trade' and let the others enter before him. Team WNRR had thought the idea to have a trip to Vale was a good idea and Jaune had been more than happy to invite them along as only one member of their team was familiar with the city and Ruby wasn't exactly the best tour guide.

Everyone of the group with the exception of Nora was carrying a bag or two with their purchases from the day not that Nora had not bought anything it was more that Ren was silently holding the energetic girl's bags as well as his own purchases.

"Welcome," a loud voice from the rear of the shop greeted the group warmly. "are you in search of a particular book or just browsing today?" The shop keeper asked the group he had watched them enter together and wasn't sure who really to address.

"I think most the group is just going to browse, but this fine lady right here is a connoisseur of the fine literary arts she might have a few volumes in mind," Jaune said pulling Blake away from a shelf and deposited her firmly in front of the shopkeeper. "I think I saw an interesting book by the entrance I'm gonna go check it out you have fun, Blake!" Jaune vanished from the area in an instant leaving a confused Blake staring at an equally confused shopkeep.

"He's kind of an odd one, isn't he? Anyways, names Tukson, is what the young man said true to do perhaps have some books in mind for today?" Tukson watched the young man weave through the store as he turned to address the girl he had left behind.

"I'm not sure if he's odd or that's just his personality... but he's not wrong I have a, um... list of books I have been wishing to own for awhile." Blake hesitated for a second and then with a faint blush showed Tukson a list of books she was hoping to find. "I don't expect you to have these, of course, they are a bit niche." Blake said defensively when she watched the man's eyes go wide for an instant.

"Ha, lady you would be surprised what you can find in a bookstore if you are brave enough to ask, hold on a second I'll get your order ready I think I have everything on that list." Tukson smiled and vanished into the back of his store and proceeded to casually grab books and tuck them into a box eventually he returned from the back room with a box filled with the girl's niche literature. "So I have everything on your list, but are you sure you want to buy these all at once?" he casually waved his hand over the box it was packed neatly and held close to thirty books.

"I'm not sure, I don't think I have ever been to a shop that has ever had everything on my list without needing to place an order..." Blake looked at the box with desire, but she knew she could not afford the entire content's in one purchase.

"Wow, that's quite a few books there Blake!" Blake jumped and spun to face Jaune, she wasn't sure how he did or if he was even aware but he moved so silently that she was continually caught off guard by him.

"It is actually more than I can afford, I'm sorry Tukson I don't have the Lien to buy all these today, do you mind if I only take three or four for the time being?" Blake asked while eyeing the box with longing.

"Of course not take you time." Tukson pushed the box toward's Blake before turning to deal with her blonde friend who had returned to the counter. "Did you find everything you were looking for?" Tukson eyed the book the teen held in his hands.

"Oh this, no, this caught my eye and figured I would grab it, I'm actually looking for stationary, I sadly came ill equipped for Beacon and the apparent leader role I have earned and I need some extra materials for lessons." Jaune brought out a list of materials that he knew Tukson would have in stock from previous lives and after a few short minutes, Jaune had his arms full with his purchases.

"Having trouble making a decision Blake?" Jaune hefted his bags off the counter and moved to stand closer to Blake but also purposefully placing himself where he wouldn't see the content of the box either.

"No, no I think I have settled on these three for the time being!" Blake hugged the books to her chest making sure the titles were turned inwards though she doubted Jaune would have noticed, he wasn't even looking at her or the box behind her, instead he was holding one of his bags open and was fishing around in it for something.

"Sounds good I'm going to go gather the others and tell them we're done here if they want to buy anything." Jaune replied still looking into his bag and wandering away to give Blake some privacy. He knew team RWBY became aware of Blakes reading material fairly early on, no one ever seemed to care outside of Yang and that was only because it gave her more ammunition when making fun of her teammates.

* * *

"So anywhere else you guys want to go?" Jaune walked casually backward looking over his group like a tour guide would. One quick look at the group showed everyone in good spirits but ready to be done with their day of shopping so he wasn't surprised when the decision was unanimous to return to Beacon. "Alright back to Beacon, it is then!" Jaune turned to face forward and fell into step with Yang who was standing towards the back of the group by herself.

"So... how has your day been going?" Jaune asked casually due to their friends being nearby but he looked to Yang with a concerned expression since while Yang had been with the group all day she stuck more to Ruby or Pyrrha than anyone else.

"This has been alright, I think? This is so weird for me I didn't really notice it initially with my freakout with Blake, but their all back and...and just so the same, but different also!" Yang felt life she was trying to explain something that had never before been explained and was struggling with the concept. "Everyone is how I remembered them even if the interactions are different, it all feels so... so alien like this is some weird dream that isn't quite happening." Yang smiled as she watched Ruby and Weiss argue quietly about Ruby wanting to make a quick stop at a bakery they had just passed that smelled of freshly baked cookies.

"That's a fairly apt way to describe it really, we change things and the interactions differ but as people, they are who we remember and trust me when I tell you the weird alien feeling your getting never really goes away you just learn to accept it." Jaune smiled as they passed another row of store's as he watched Nora drag Ren across the street a half dozen times to look in every window at least once.

"This has been a good day Jaune, the whole thing just felt natural and right. Is this what you meant by a perfect moment?"

"It could be, I have never had someone to ask me what a perfect moment is, I always found a moment I enjoyed and-well basked in it though I have to admit this right here today is a great moment one that we should cherish!" Jaune smiled as they approached the Bullhead platform and joined the queue of people waiting for a spare ship to take them to their desired location.

Yang looked around at the group her first real time taking everything in and understanding what Jaune was fighting for not just to keep his friends alive but to preserve moments like this where they could enjoy their lives and not have to deal with the horror's he knew would come too soon.

After a short wait their group entered a Bullhead that was headed to Beacon, as soon as they left the ground multiple monitors's sprung to life with daily Vale new's broadcasts. "Good Afternoon, I am Lisa Lavender, Today Vale has been struck again in another Bank robbery this makes the third one this month and authorities are struggling to Identify the culprits, video records of the robberies only show two suspects while reports from witness's of the robberies claim to have seen upwards of a dozen assailants, currently the Police are now working with the local huntsmen under the suspicions that the criminal is a person with both unlocked Aura and a visual manipulation Semblance. The police are also asking if you have any information that may lead to the resolution of these crimes to people contact XXX-XXXX"

 _That's not right!_ Jaune sent a quick glance to Yang to see if she had caught the broadcast but if she did she couldn't show it as she was engaged in a conversation with Pyrrha. _That was clearly Emerald's Semblance but why are they robbing banks or for that matter risking exposing themselves so early? Also Bank Robberies and no mention of Dust thefts?_ Jaune took a deep breath to focus his mind. _Okay stressing over this will not get me anywhere something has clearly happened that has made Cinder lack the Lien to do something this isn't the first time this has happened just normally I'm the direct cause of something like this... that is not as comforting a thought as I hoped it would be..._

"You seem pretty distracted right now!" Weiss said as she made to sit down beside him.

"Yeah sorry I... uh, struggle with motion sickness, I'm normally pretty good but every so often I have a bad ride in one of these Bullheads." Jaune said trying to sound as casual as he could, he had long ago fixed his issue with Bullheads but relied on the easy excuse to explain is distracted/concerned expression.

"Oh," Weiss moved slightly farther away from Jaune but remained seated she clearly wanted to ask a question but now felt awkward.

"I'm fine Weiss I haven't had a bad experience in a long time so I should be good for a little conversation."

Weiss nodded her head. "I'm wondering how you have been handling your role as team leader, I... I have been having some difficulties, and was wondering if maybe they were just a normal thing?"

"So you want to compare note's, I can understand that. I'm not sure about issues my team has been having we seem to get along great... in most cases. There are some discrepancies but those I guess boil down to people's personalities." Jaune assumed Weiss was going to want to talk about the excess energy and lack of focus that both Nora and Ruby had in droves.

"That is in a way something I was curious about, I have trouble getting either Nora or Ruby to focus during class's both are prone to be distracted, honestly it feels quite frustrating!" Weiss clenched her fists over her skirt and held the position for a moment before relaxing.

"Well, I assume you have confronted them on this behavior?" Jaune knew the old Weiss would have done so immediately though the old Weiss normally has a more direct discussion with one of the Professors and not another student so he wasn't going to assume anything about what this one may or may not have done.

"I have not actually, I don't want to seem 'controlling' especially not to my friends." Weiss said with an earnest expression.

"I don't think confronting them about this would be the wrong idea but to be fair I doubt I'm the best example of proper classroom conduct." Jaune smiled as he eluded to multiple times during the first week where he had slept through entire lesson's, but somehow when a teacher tried to call on him he always had the perfect response to whatever question they tried to stump him with.

"Well, aside from your penchant for sleeping during class you seem to handle the lessons and assignments perfectly." Weiss had expected Jaune to have fairly low scores with the time he spent sleeping during class's only to learn after the first week that he had the highest academic score overall, while it was still early she had been shocked by that knowledge.

"Oh I'm hardly perfect I'm probably only middle of the pack, never was that great of a student." Jaune scoffed at Weiss's claim.

"Do you seriously not know that you are the highest marked in class? Our current combat and academic marks can be brought up on any scroll that has been added to the school's network." Weiss pulled out her own scroll to prove it and after a few quick gestures, she showed the academic rankings of all first-year students attending Beacon with one Jaune Arc being near perfect at the top.

 _Why am I still learning new stuff at this point, how has this never come up in the past either!_ "Huh, would you look at that..." _Great now I can't just randomly start tanking class's either or that would be wildly inconsistent._ "I honestly don't know how to explain that." Jaune shrugged his shoulders and looked at the floor of the Bullhead and rolled his eyes at how stupid he was.

"You know for someone who is supposedly well read and naturally intelligent you miss quite a few things it seems." Weiss stood as the intercom announced their impending arrival at Beacon and she went to gather her bags.

 _You don't know the half of what I miss..._

* * *

"Your famous criminal's now 'Bravo'" Roman clapped as he walked past Emerald and Mercury. "Well, not so much famous, you kind of need to be known to be famous all you two have is an annoying guy who likes to run his mouth and a girl with a Semblance that does ninety-nine percent of the work." Roman twirled Melodic Cudgel casually as he walked the room. Roman Glanced at Mercury to see if the gray-haired teen would raise to the bait but sadly after the third beating he received from Roman he had become much more subdued.

"I hope that was the last one, the police have figured out that there are only two of us and that all the witness reports of more people are just people confused by my Semblance." Emerald was angry, Cinder had been very specific about keeping her abilities secret, but she had also stressed to point to not let the plans get derailed and unfortunately, recent events forced her hand.

The Smugglers bringing the Dust from Vacuo and Mistral were starting to arrive and they had run out of funds after the first delivery, no one knew when Cinder might return and they needed to be able to pay the smugglers when they arrived so she had taken it upon herself to get the funds needed, it had initially started with single items from jewelry stores that Roman would fence and while that had paid the second Smuggler off the third was close behind and they hadn't had the time for that sort of slow work.

She had wanted to rob the first bank but they didn't have the time for anything else, Roman had presented an easy target that had little security and was out of the way enough that police response would be slow, so she took Mercury with her and they concealed their identities and with ample use of her Semblance they made off with enough Lien to pay for the next delivery and she had repeated the process twice more to pay for the final two deliveries and she was glad to be done with the business though she inwardly cursed at information of her semblance being revealed, the only saving grace being that at least no one knew who it was that wielded it so she was still safe for the time being.

"So... anyone know what we are supposed to do next?" Roman sat down across from Cinder's minions and asked a question that no one had an answer too. Sending a glance their way when he got no response Roman let out a long deep sigh. "NEO!" Roman bellowed as he wasn't exactly sure where his diminutive partner was at the moment only to have her appear beside him moments after calling her name. "I need a drink and," Roman jerked his thumb in Emerald and Mercury's direction "they need to think of a good enough reason to keep us here after tonight." With that Roman and Neo made their way to the door.

"We don't need to think of a reason you will stay and do you job because Cinder told you too." Mercury had found his voice and shouted after them.

"You see the thing about Cinder's threats is they only work with her constant presence, she has been gone for almost three months now and I'm beginning to personally think that whatever job you guys left on you fucked up so hard that Cinder just abandoned the both of you with some pretty lie of going to see some mysterious important figure! You two have until I get back to think of a reason worth my time to stay in Vale otherwise the way I see it now that you have your Dust my work here is done and I'm free to go elsewhere!" With that last comment, the door to the warehouse slammed shut behind Roman as he and Neo left the premises.

"Good riddance I say!" Mercury eyed the door with distaste happy to see the arrogant criminal leave.

"Of course you would say that your lucky he hasn't killed you on any of the times you tried to fight him!" Emerald felt she needed to remind Mercury of the outcome of every fight the two had had with Roman being the clear victor.

"I already told you he's cheating somehow like he knows my moves before I even do them!" Mercury had made the same argument each time he woke up after failing to land a satisfactory hit on the man.

"And I told you I don't care about your damn bravado your probably half the reason he want's to bail at this point anyways."

"Hardly he has been looking for an excuse ever since we came back without Cinder and now that the Dust is all here he's using that as an excuse to bail and honestly he doesn't have a bad idea." He was forced to admit that as powerful and menacing as Cinder was, Roman was right about one thing the longer Cinder was away the less effective her threats or in his case promises were becoming on keeping him loyal.

"So you are thinking of leaving too!" Emerald glared at her partner in contempt she expected this from Roman but Mercury had been promised something much like she had.

"Your thinking of staying, why? Roman's not wrong, as much as I hate the guy, but what if we fucked up so badly when we didn't finish that girl off that day that Cinder just decided it was easier to abandon us then keep us around. Besides your Semblance is blown even if your identity isn't any weird occurrences that happen will be scrutinized more thoroughly than before which means it's only a matter of time until you are figured out which means whatever plan Cinder had for you just became a helluva lot harder."

"So that's it? you think we should just leave and go back to our lives of me struggling to survive on the streets and you, what would you even do you lived in some backwoods cabin your whole life being abused by a drunk assassin. No, I'm better off waiting for Cinder to return and whether you believe it or not so are you!" Emerald turned from her partner wandered into the deep recesses of the warehouse wanting to be alone to think of a reason to keep Roman in Vale.

 _I might have no purpose but at least I'm not blindly following the first person to show me a small bit of compassion... no Cinder has no compassion at least any that is sincere!_ Mercury slumped back into one of the couch's and decided to wait for the next meeting to decide which way his life would go from now on.

* * *

"Would you please stop giving me that look!" Roman spoke without looking at his diminutive partner knowing without having to see it what Neo was doing as soon as they left the presence of Mercury and Emerald. "I have already told you we are being paid quite handsomely to interfere with Cinder and her stooges," Roman glanced over and saw that Neo had done nothing but cross her arms and continue walking beside him, but was at least glad she didn't suspect he was lying.

"It's not that simple you saw what happened the day we confronted them, They nearly killed me and honestly if that Huntsman hadn't shown up when he did do you think any of us, you, me or that girl would have made it off that road alive?" Roman watched as Neo unfolded her arms and pointed to herself.

"Yeah, point taken you would have escaped, and you would have been set for a couple years but what after that? We need each other and as tough as you act you know that." Roman smiled when that got a response he was happy with as Neo held up two fingers and pointed to a nearby confectionery to which he immediately altered his course and the two entered and left in short order both holding an ice cream cone.

"Either way unless those two think of a good reason by the time we return tonight then we are leaving and before we do I think we are owed a little revenge for the beating we... I took back then!" Roman corrected himself when Neo had raised an eyebrow at the implication she had lost a fight.

He had only been six or seven lick's into his cone when he felt it vanish from his hand, he didn't even make mention of this, he knew that Neo would appropriate his cone after she devoured her own and personally he was glad as he never much cared for the sugary taste of his partners favorite treat. Arriving at their destination Roman entered the club and promptly spotted the owner.

"Bourbon and one of Neo's usual's," Roman said as he sat in front of Junior the Bartender/Owner of the club only nodded his head as one of the other men behind the bar went about filling Romans order and returned with his drink and Neo's concoction of Ice cream, Soda and a splash of some sweet form of alcohol.

"It's rare that I see you in here and actually order something aside from my goon's." Junior finally deigned to acknowledge his presence mainly on the fact that Roman was one of the few brave enough to sit in the normally always vacant chairs in front of where he stood at his bar.

"I needed something a bit stronger than one of your goon's tonight." Roman lifted his glass high in a small toast to Junior and a jab at the man's 'Help'.

Junior smirked at that comment and slid a familiar envelope to Roman the same one that Neo had delivered before she left to Vacuo. "The answer is no if your wondering."

 _Figured that would be the case, though that doesn't narrow down which one is the cause of this little adventure._ "Thanks." Roman grabbed the envelope and with a quick flick of his lighter set the envelope on fire and dropped it in one of the many ashtrays that dotted the countertop.

"Why would you think she might have come in that here that night anyways?"

"Just a hunch, but she didn't and really that's all I needed to be answered." Roman stared into his glass trying to figure out his next move.

 _It had been so easy up to this point. Mess with the bitch's plans enough that she doesn't get Neo killed during the Vytal festival, but why does it feel the more time that goes by that something bigger than Cinders plans are taking place. Would have been so much easier if I knew before where her strength came from after the road I know she isn't as strong as she once was but now she's not even around to finish my revenge!"  
_

"I should have paid more attention to the little things!"

* * *

 **Well, their you have it for all of you who guessed it we have a third-time traveler with a pretty malleable accomplice to boot.**

 **Roman got carried along with Jaune's Semblance as well and it look's like Roman is a little disenfranchised with Cinders plan because of it being a direct result of Neo's death.**

 **Roman's reasons for working against Cinder instead of just taking Neo and bolting will be explained later.**

 **Well this chapter was an effort to write and actually most of it is from a third rewrite and I'm still not 100% happy with it but I felt delaying any further wouldn't get me a better result so I bit the bullet, Enjoy!  
**


	15. Chapter 15

_What is this? What is happening!?_

He had felt a Semblance activate and his own naturally triggered as well though whether or not he accepted the trigger was another matter but he had never felt a Semblance like this before.

 _So the other Blonde has one as well, I don't feel strength so it is definitely not the girl, also why does this feel so strange..._

Moving back into the warehouse he paid no mind to the dust explosive he had set instead focusing on the fact the two he had left to die beside it were missing.

 _NO! I WILL NOT LET YOU ESCAPE! I CAN'T HAVE MY REVENGE ON CINDER, BUT YOU TWO WILL PAY FOR YOUR PART IN 'HER' DEATH!_

Seething as he moved past the explosive, he didn't get far before he felt the pull of the Semblance become stronger, panicking as his mind formed the thought that maybe the boy's Semblance was a means of escape from this fate.

 _You are not escaping wherever you go I will follow!_

With that decision Roman let his own Semblance take hold of the one he felt coming from his target it was a gentle tug at first something he had felt many times before in the past when he used his Semblance to piggyback on Neo's, behind him the building was ripped apart by an explosion and he was sent flying away from the source his back burned and shredded apart by the remains of half destroyed containers.

The gentle tug became an insistent pull now and as he was about to lose consciousness Roman felt the pull stop suddenly, and instead of passing out he sat bolt upright and slammed his forehead into something hard and solid.

"Sonofabitch." _Wait..._ "...hello?" _Since when can I talk?_ Reaching up to his neck Roman felt around searching for the scar the Cinder had left him when he tried to kill her after learning of Neo's death. He never understood why Cinder hadn't just killed him instead she rendered him a mute and then seemingly vanished. The scar was missing, it was too dark and he had no idea where he was so he felt around his body looking for any indication of where he might be right now.

After a few short heartbeats his hand fell on a familiar object but one that he hadn't seen or felt in years, picking up the item he ran his hand across it and felt its shape. 'Melodic Cudgel' his weapon one that he hadn't held or seen in years but he was positive this was his weapon.

 _Where am I? What is going on? I can speak again and a weapon I lost years ago is now at my side. I... I need to find out where I am._

Roman focused all his sense's into trying to figure out where he was feeling around himself he couldn't find a scroll or even a device that would grant him any form of light but he did discover he wasn't even dressed he was only wearing a loose pair of shorts and he was covered in bed sheets. Reaching up he felt for what his head had connected with moments earlier and it felt cold and metallic feeling out to his sides he touched either side of the compartment he was sleeping in he was sure that underneath his mattress he would find another metal wall.

 _This reminds me of one of those sleeping compartments Mistral has in its trains...It...It couldn't be that that though could it?  
_

Roman reached beside himself very carefully feeling along both walls until he eventually found a slight indentation in the wall, pushing on it, it opened to reveal a small compartment containing a Scroll, hat, change of clothes and a handful of cigars.

 _Then that mean's the release for the exit should be right here._

Reaching into the compartment he found a switch and behind his head a panel slide away and the compartment he was in slid part way out of the wall to allow him an easy way out of the compartment stepping out he hastily dressed himself.

 _So I'm clearly in Mistral though I didn't think that Kingdom could afford to bother with its rail system anymore or more precisely wasn't there no point to having a rail system when there was nowhere to go._

Reaching into the compartment he had just vacated he gathered his belongings sticking his cigars into a pocket placing his hat on his head grabbing his weapon and lastly he pulled the scroll out of the compartment which then promptly caused the sleeping area to sink back into the wall.

Looking at the Scroll Roman tried a pin to unlock it and it didn't work he even tried a few other pins he would commonly use and none of them took the Scroll off its lock screen, with a sigh he tucked it into his shirt.

 _So, here you are Roman Torchwick, voice back weapon in hand and apparently on some night train ride somewhere in Mistral...two kingdoms away from where I last remember being also apparently not about to die from an explosion either... So Jaune... yes Jaune he has a Teleportation Semblance I tagged along with? Though that doesn't explain my missing scar or the return of my weapon... Okay, enough of that two priorities find out where those two went so I can finish my job and two, let's find a mirror something doesn't feel right._

Roman looked around for anything in the compartment that might give him sign's of a direction to take but the corridor was empty aside from a pair of soft blue lights embedded in the floor that showed a path to either end of the compartment. With a mild sigh of annoyance, he turned to the door that would lead him closer to the front of the train and started that direction. Moving through several cars that were filled with sleeping compartments Roman eventually emerged in a car that was fashioned to appear as a bar or restaurant possibly both.

"Good Evening," A formally dressed man behind the bar counter greeted him as he stepped through the door.

"Uh, yeah, hi." Roman responded his mind had briefly wanted to shoot the man an annoyed look because of his inability to talk but only at the last second did he remember that he could again.

"Just passing through or looking for a Nightcap to help you get to sleep?"

"I am looking for a bathroom actually." _The would at least solve my mirror issue._

"In that case, head back the way you just came, in any of the sleeping cars at either end there is a washroom just look for a faint blue panel on the wall to open the room."

Turning around he waved his thanks to the bartender and retreated back a cabin and immediately found the panel the man had mentions now that he knew what to look for. Entering the small room he took one look in a mirror and thought he had seen a ghost of himself from the past.

He stood staring into the mirror for an incredibly long period of time.

 _What the hell, I'm... young again?_ Roman felt his face and watched the young doppelganger in the mirror mimic his actions, after several minutes of almost comically trying to catch the mirror doing something that he himself wasn't Roman leaned his back against the wall.

 _So I'm dead then and this train is what, some sort of Purgatory for me? A bit posh for what I would imagine Purgatory to be, but I remember the few times I traveled on one of these things, they are a damn expensive way to travel. I'll rule out Purgatory at least until I start getting tormented by some evil ghost from my past, god knows I would have made enough of them.  
_

After a few more minutes examining himself in the mirror, he left the small room behind and proceeded back to where the barkeep was quickly checking his wallet to make sure he had some Lien he ordered a bourbon and made to sit at the bar hoping he might learn something from the bartender.

"So, any idea how soon we will be arriving?" _Good, easy safe question._

"Well, as long as we don't have any issues we will arrive shortly before lunch tomorrow." Replied the bartender casually.

 _Of course, don't tell me where we are going that would be easy... Not his fault Roman at least not yet..._

"This train have a news broadcast you could turn on?" _If this is a Mistral train there has to be at least one.  
_

"Oh, sure I normally turn it off this late but let me turn it on for you."

Roman watched as the man ducked behind a counter and reappeared a moment later holding a remote and he turned one on the screens behind him and after a few quick channel changes found a channel still broadcasting the news.

"With this most recent attack the Schnee family of Atlas has tightened security around all their Atlesian facilities, and the Council in Atlas has instituted a tempory travel ban of Faunus entering or leaving the Kingdom until the culprits are discovered. In related news Winter Schnee of the Schnee Dust Company has publicly declined her position as Heiress and has instead joined the Atlas Military, so far she has denied commenting on her decision but has been seen in the company of her younger sister multiple times since the announcement and current Heiress Weiss Schnee."

 _... none of that made any sense... Both those women are dead and the Schnee Dust Company folded after the Atlas council seized all its assets to support its war machine. That broadcast has to be eight or more years old. Well, that definitely adds a point to this being some weird Purgatory._

Roman continued to watch the news but nothing was said that gave him any clues as to what was happening. finishing his drink he tossed the bartender a tip and thanked him before moving back to the sleeping cars.

The decision to head this way was an easy one during his time in the car with the bar he noticed the far door had a very clear 'red' outline which signified it would be looked to anyone without a proper keycard he was sure he didn't possess.

Walking the other way through the train Roman pulled out the scroll he took from his sleeping compartment again and absently tried to figure out the combination to unlock it. The device was clearly his but it refused to unlock to any password he could think of, eventually he reached the compartment he had woken up in and eyed the door heading further towards the back of the train.

 _Might as well keep searching for a definitive answer._

Entering the new car Roman discovered it was just a carriage holding luggage proceeding through it, he found the door to the next car and it shared the same red outline as the one he had seen in the front most car and he knew it to be locked. Quickly doing a search of his pockets to find a ticket stub or something to indicate that he might have some luggage he came up frustratingly empty-handed.

 _All that's probably on this damn Scroll I can't unlock, screw this I'm going back to sleep._

Returning to where he woke up Roman stood in front of the compartment he had left from and stared at the flat featureless surface.

 _...I assume I need to unlock my Scroll to access this too..._

 _Drink till Dawn? Yup, Drink till Dawn._

Giving up he turned towards the front of the train and stopped only when he entered the car with the bar, still empty aside from the bartender who was casually leaning against his counter idling the night away.

Roman ordered another drink but this time took it to one of the more comfortable booths and tried to make himself comfortable occasionally pulling out the Scroll and trying to think of a code to unlock it.

Gradually the night past and natural light began to fill the car as the sun rose, shortly after that the bartender was replaced by another man and a couple women, one of which approached him and asked what he would like for breakfast handing him a menu and leaving after he had placed his order. The women returned shortly with his breakfast and Roman have nothing else to do invested himself in his meal only looking up when he sensed someone slide into the booth across from him.

"NEO!" Roman jumped backward from his sitting positions and over the back of his seat and landed in the unoccupied both behind where he was sitting. Quickly extracting himself from the booth he turned to return to his booth to find Neo staring at him with an amused expression.

 _Calm down, goddamnit calm down!_ His chest beat wildly as he speechlessly stared at his partner. "Neo, please don't do that!" Roman knew how lame that sounded he didn't think he had ever been surprised like that by her before.

Neo cocked her head to the side and shrugged, returning to the booth and appropriating his meal for herself.

"Hey, wait, stop that mine... you know what never mind enjoy yourself." Raising his arm he waved down his server and ordered another plate of the same for himself.

 _Alright... Neo is back and still acting like the Neo I remember, that's another point for me probably being dead... that is not an awful thought... my life sucked and if I get to spend my afterlife with her, who am I to complain._

Roman watched as his second plate arrive and started to eat again every so often casually casting a glance at Neo who was fully invested in her meal which she had drenched in a form of sticky sweet syrup that normally is reserved for pancakes or waffles but she saw fit to add to any breakfast food.

Finishing his meal he paid the waitress and sat back in the booth trying to do anything but stare at Neo, which was hard as she commanded his attention with ease be just being here across from him instead of in a tiny grave outside of Vale marked only with the broken pieces of Melodic Cudgel.

After a grueling amount of time Neo finished her meal and cleaned up every trace of the syrup she had poured onto her plate did she bother to look at him again, immediately gesturing to his pocket and raising an eyebrow, asking a question.

 _...I don't remember that one, what is in that pocket?_ Feeling his coat he pulled out a cigar and instantly understood. _She's wondering why I'm not smoking?_

"Didn't sleep well don't feel like smoking right now." Another lame excuse, he considered lighting the cigar for a moment but ultimately decided against it. The answer seemed to satisfy her though as she exited the booth and stretched adopting a posture that showed she was waiting for him to do something.

 _...Okay, we are here to do something..._ Sliding from the booth Roman stood and looked to his partner and gave her a slow deliberate nod hoping it was the right gesture, from her immediate wide smile he assumed it was and she walked casually out of the car into the sleeping compartments with himself following behind, eventually they reached the luggage car and here Neo stopped in front of the door Roman had hours earlier.

 _...So we need to get through this door and I guess that's my job... how am I supposed to get through the lock though I have no tools on me... wait what if!_ Roman pulled a Cigar from his pocket and felt along the wrapping, eventually, he felt a hard surface under the soft paper wrapper. _Huh, I haven't done that since that time in Mistral when we tried to steal that rare... dust... crystal... off...that...train..._

Roman mind slowed to a crawl gradually connecting the dots. _Am I reliving that moment? Why would I relive this moment? I would hardly consider this point in time to be special enough for my mind to take me back here, this was just a botched robbery..._ Roman quickly pulled out the rest of his cigars and extracted the tools from each of them.

 _How did this robbery go again? We got past this door and took out the four atlas guards in the next room, everything was going fine until we opened the case and took the crystal, some sensor was tripped and the other crates in the car opened to reveal Robotic security droids, we managed to escape barely but I had to detonate the crystal to give us that chance._

He felt Neo standing behind him staring intently at the lock as his finger's deftly moved the tools pushing past the door's mechanical tumblers until he heard the faintest of clicks.

"Door's open... four guards, deal with the 'quietly'!" He attempted to sound confident and was unsure if Neo was even paying attention as she slipped into the room and he stood outside waiting for her to give him the all clear to enter, after only a brief moment the door cracked open and she pulled him inside to a scene of four guards collapsed on the floor unconscious.

 _Not dead... I guess that doesn't matter killing them would just make the hunt for people behind the crime be stronger, did she kill them last time? Did I even bother to pay attention last time? Probably not!_

Stepping over the unconscious forms he approached the heavily locked and reinforced crate in the center of the room, idly his glanced at the other crates that he remembered housed the security bots.

 _Hmmm... Ignore that for now, get the crate open and see if I can find and disable the sensor._ Reaching the crate he looked for the lock and cursed when it was a digital one. _Great, I can't get through this without my Scroll... wait if I'm 'experiencing' this again then that means the code should be an older one._ Pulling out his Scroll he opened the touchpad and entered a simple four digit code and smiled as the screen unlocked. _Yeah never would have remembered that, but at least were in business now._

Roman placed the Scroll over the digital keypad and activated an app, several long minutes went by until eventually the screen flashed red once and then the Scroll emitted a faint trickle of smoke as the insides of the device destroyed itself. Reaching forward he gingerly lifted the lid of the container slowly raising it until it sat fully open.

 _Okay, no robot guards so far..._

The interior of the case was empty just a soft black foam lining and the dust crystal sitting alone in the center of the case. _Obviously, it's secured to something under it and that's what triggers the bots, how did I not figure that out last time, the train's motion would have caused it to move at least a tiny bit if it wasn't secured._

While he was pondering his next move, Neo casually reached into the case intent on grabbing the crystal, only being stopped at the last second by the hook of Melodic Cudgel pulling her hand away.

Roman watched her annoyed expression. "Pressure sensor." Roman pointed to the case and tapped one of the crate's lining the wall. Neo understood and stepped back happy to wait now that a reason had been presented to her.

Roman felt around the edge of the case eventually finding a small cable tucked away. _Definitely didn't bother to look for this last time, I wonder what cutting it will do._ Taking one of his sharper lockpicking tools he deftly severed the cable.

"Not sure if that had the desired effect so be ready." he watched as Neo adopted a more concerned stance.

Reaching into the case he gently pulled on the crystal and felt it lift off something that was holding it in place. Quickly darting his eyes around the car he let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding when none of the other containers in the opened to reveal their contents.

Holding up the Crystal, Roman was about to inspect it when it was snatched from his hand and Neo with a bow and a wink vanished in front of his eyes.

 _Wait, what?... no... that's right if the plan had gone right she would leave the train with the crystal and deliver it to my contact..._

Smiling Roman left the car behind making his way towards the front of the train his memory of this time slowly coming back he vaguely remembered how this plan was supposed to work and decided to trust his memory.

* * *

Months had passed and life had been good to him after eventually figuring out that this was his past, unfortunately not far enough back to where he wasn't an almost globally wanted criminal.

 _This is most likely the boy's Semblance, pretty slim chance it to be the girls I felt her use it enough time's and it was completely different._ Roman paced around the hotel room he was currently living out of in Atlas, he and Neo had been hired to do a job and were currently waiting for their target to expose himself. He used most of his alone time to think about how he ended where he was and what changes he could make to his fate, he had experienced the tender mercies of Cinder and witnessed what Salem planned for the world first hand and he did not relish the thought of living in that world.

 _I wonder if this is the first repeat the boy has experienced... No, not likely, he was always too strong, too knowledgeable for someone so young, he must have experienced his life a few times at least... though if he has how come he hasn't found a way to stop Cinder or Salem?_ Roman shook his head he was slowly developing a headache every time he tried to consider why an outcome happened his mind spread into a cobweb of ideas and he could never come to any conclusion.

Taking a break Roman opened his scroll to scan his latest investment though to an onlooker it would just appear to be him gambling, though if anyone paid attention they would notice that Roman hadn't lost a bet in months. _Pretty boring week for betting nothing but a lame amateur tournament, still If I can remember who won the thing easy Lien is easy Lien._

Roman casually flipped through pages of fighters no names leaping out to jog his memory, he never paid much attention to events like this in his past life he could only remember larger events that the goons he was forced to work with would not shut up about, eventually he reached the final page and he dropped his Scroll, hastily he grabbed the device and re-read the name

 _Xaio Long. Y_

 _Could that be her? She wasn't a prize fighter in her last life... was she? No, If she was even for how little I paid attention I would not have missed that tidbit, Could this mean I was wrong and maybe she's the time traveler?_

Roman sat quietly contemplating that fact he was sure that it was the boy, but if the girl was doing something he couldn't remember her doing then maybe he was wrong and left him with a very telling headache.

Fighting off the headache he made a call and placed a very large bet in the girl's favor. _Let's see if your as lucky in this life as you were in the last._

* * *

He sat idly in his warehouse near the Vale dock's, time had slipped by and he had been contacted through one of his sources that someone was looking to hire him for a long term job in Vale. He didn't need the work, Yang Xaio Long had effectively made it so that Roman would never have to work another day in his life if he so chose not too, the only reason he even bothered to accept this job was the promise that he made himself in his past life that Cinder would pay for Neo's death.

 _... Calm down, you know who she is, how strong she is, we just need to make her trust us, let us get close and find the right time to stab her in the back..._

He casually tapped his foot on the floor the only sign to himself and Neo who was sitting nearby that he was anxious for their new employer to arrive.

Eventually, one of his men opened the door and ushered in two women.

 _Was Mercury her when we first met... could this be a good opportunity?_

Gripping Melodic Cudgel Roman stood and greeted his guest who gave him a deep look and half a smile, a look he was familiar with one that would normally reduce a man to putty to be easily manipulated by her.

"Don't waste your time, you don't have anything I want in that regard!" Roman smiled as he watched Cinder's shoulders stiffen for a moment only to relax immediately afterward.

"Whatever do you mean, I was just being polite is this how the people of Vale behave to their guests?" Cinder sat down casually regarding the man across from her.

 _I should just kill her, though my money would be on Cinder not actually being where I see her thanks to Emerald._

"Look let us not waste time with this little game you are attempting to play, you came to me looking for assistance with a job larger than you could handle and by the way your behaving larger than you can afford either." Roman held back the smile as he watched Cinder's eyes flash with concern that her typical avenue for dealing with people was being stonewalled.

"Fine," Roman's smile slipped for an instant as Cinder seethed the word through clenched teeth. "Yes, I contacted you and it seems like I made the right choice, anyone to fall so casually to my charms probably wouldn't be worth my time."

"Last chance, end your game or out talk is over. Threaten me, Bribe me or genuinely convince me but don't insult my intelligence in thinking for a moment I will trust you."

"You insolent wretch do you know who you are speaking with!" Cinder stood from the couch and fire flared in her hands. Behind her Emerald looking incredibly nervous held her weapons at the ready.

"I'm speaking with 'Cinder Fall' and for what appears like the first time it seems." Roman casually sat down for the first time since Cinder entered his room. Sitting had been an easy way to escape the heat Cinder was radiating and not look like he was intimidated actually giving the impression he was confident enough to adopt a weaker position. "Like I said threaten, bribe or convince those are the only three ways I'm going to follow your's or anyone else's orders for that matter!"

Snuffing out the flames in her hand's Cinder composed herself and sat back down. "You are different than the rumor's I have heard about you!" Roman could hear the anger in her voice, and while he was intimidated with her display it had proved that he wasn't ready to confront her.

"Rumors are a dangerous thing they mislead and trick people into believing they may know something, I know the rumors that surround me, some are accurate and other's are less so." pulling out a cigar he went about preparing it to be lit. "Much as there are rumors around you and your reason to be in Vale."

"I am in Vale as it is the most centralized Kingdom, it is a strong position to be in if I have plan's to deal with any of the other Kingdoms." Cinders anger was still slowly abating but her eyes held no heat instead they glanced icy dagger's at Roman wishing the man would be more like the rumors had suggested and an easy puppet to coerce and manipulate.

"Hah, as if, your plan is here in Vale or up the cliff on Beacon but regardless of what it is you need someone who can acquire thing's discreetly correct?" Roman tried to steer the conversation to his employment now that he was certain he didn't want to risk fighting her right now, and also not wanting to piss her off any more than he already had and cause her to find someone else to fill his job.

The heat returned in her gaze though it did not seem focused on himself as it was earlier this was more of a heat of desire. "I need Dust, more than that I need uncut unstable Dust."

Emerald pulled out a Scroll and moved to hand it to Roman only to be stopped short by Neo who took the device and casually tossed it to Roman who deftly caught it.

Roman opened the device and quickly read through the list of Dust and other materials Cinder needed collecting.

 _Same list as the first time and this time I'm more prepared to deal with the absurd amount she requires, although I'm not even sure what she does with half this dust I never saw enough used during Mountain Glenn or the attack on Beacon that would use the amount she wants me to collect._

"This is everything then?" Roman watched Cinder as she gave him the slightest of nods in confirmation. "I can easily handle all this amount!"

Roman leaned back and began to discuss the logistics and the cost of his services.

* * *

 _She's leaving, I remember this, she return's stronger than before and with the White Fang in tow. I can't let her succeed._

"Neo, remember what we discussed about 'her'!" Roman watched as his accomplice eagerly shook her head, he was glad that his violent little friend had quickly learned to dislike Cinder as much as he did though for entirely different reasons and when Roman had fed her the lie of being paid to interfere with Cinders scheme's Neo had been all too eager to assist.

"Follow her, if something strange occurs come and get me!" He didn't know what happened during the time Cinder left but he hoped he could, if prepared stall or thwart her efforts.

Watching Neo leaving he felt a brief pang of fear that he might not see her again but he quickly squashed that feeling. _Neo can take care of herself, I need to call an old friend, Marcus deserves a warning at least._

* * *

Neo reappeared days later out of breath and wearing a small layer of dirt from traveling the countryside following Cinder. Roman read a few gestures she sent his way and understood the meaning. "Marcus is dead then I take it?" A quick nod from Neo confirmed it.

"Here put this on." Roman tossed Neo a set of heavy clothing and pulled out a second set for himself quickly obscuring his features. Glancing at Neo he saw that she was staring at the outfit with a confused expression.

"She's gathering allies, ones more willing than us, we need to put a stop to it and if we fail it would better if she couldn't recognize us wouldn't it?" Roman watched as Neo seemed to weight the idea heavily before just peeling off her clothing in front of him and donning the new outfit he had given her.

 _God's your a strange one, have a little modesty!_ Roman knew not to say that out loud he had in the past tried to teach Neo some proper behaviors and while some lessons took others did not.

Roman dropped Melodic Cudgel on the couch he picked up another weapon he had prepared in advance hefting a nondescript looking set of Tonfa, shorter and lighter than his cane but the weapons would allow him to fight in his familiar style.

"Okay, let's go!" Roman let his Semblance take hold of Neo's and he followed her through her multiple teleports to return to where she had last been.

* * *

Watching from the side of the road he was impressed by the solo women's power, she was fighting off three attackers, not with ease but with the opponents she was against was holding her ground remarkably well, or was, she was beginning to take repeated blows.

 _Why is Cinder even wasting her time with this girl?_

Roman got his answer when the girl lost the fight, Emerald and Mercury restrained the girl and he watch's Cinder slip on a glove he recognized from his other life, that's one of Salem's!

 _She's stealing this girl's power!_

Pulling his two Tonfa in front of him he fired a dust cartridge from both, the shell's exploded short of his target as he was not sure how to aim with a shorter barrel weapon but the explosions had the desired effect of drawing Cinder's attention away from her gruesome task.

Neo dashed past him and quickly assaulted Emerald and Mercury forcing them to drop the girl to defend themselves.

Roman closed with Cinder, he wasn't confident in his ability to delay her for long but he knew he needed to destroy the glove if it was ruined or more accurately the Grimm inside it was killed then Cinder at least would not be able to do what she planned with this girl.

 _Distract and confuse, avoid hitting the glove until I get a clear shot, simple easy plan once that's done we leave!_

"I don't know who you are but if you leave now I'll forget this whole interruption." Cinder spoke calmly assured in her position to be able to handle any single opponent.

Roman stood a good many feet from Cinder and refused to respond instead pulling both Tonfa in front of himself and firing another two quick shots which he chased in, arriving at his target Cinder was not where she should have been, Roman twisted trying to find her only to be struck in the back of the head hard his Aura cushioned the blow but it still left him rattled and his vision swam.

Wildly firing his weapon he sought space to let his head clear and the panicked defense seemed to have the desired effect as through his blurred vision he watched Cinder retreat, only realizing his error when his vision sharpened that she had backed away to fire a volley of arrows from her bow. Roman dove to the side to avoid the projectiles but could feel at least one had struck its mark and his Aura barely managed to force the arrow away.

 _This is going about as well as I expected._

Rolling to his feet he knew he couldn't keep this up. Roman chose to do something foolish and he closed with Cinder hoping to catch her off guard by switching from a ranged fight to a melee encounter, if it did surprise her it wasn't enough to give him an opening but it did make it clear she was trying to protect the glove she wore.

Roman worked around that, if she was protecting the glove he would move to attack elsewhere striking her legs or her other arm to the point where he was actively avoiding striking the gloved arm. It only took a short amount of time for Cinder to become enraged with the encounter and she lashed out with her gloved hand catching one of the Tonfa and Roman saw his chance as he felt Cinder pull from her Semblance a heat enveloped her hand holding the Tonfa as she aimed to destroy the weapon.

Roman let his own Semblance grab a hold of Cinder's and fed more heat into the weapon purposefully igniting the dust cartridges inside and causing the weapon to explode instead of just break, as Cinder had intended. Watching he smiled beneath his mask as Cinder stared at her bare arm in shock the glove having been reduced to a ruined string of fabric, Roman did not have time to celebrate as he was launched from where he stood and hit the ground hard blacking out as his Aura depleted.

* * *

Neo leaned over him looking concerned.

"Where..." Roman sat up and saw a brief look of relief cross Neo's face but was quickly replaced with a motion for him to keep quiet.

Looking at his surrounding's it was clear they were still in the vicinity of the fight Neo couldn't go too far purposefully pulling someone with her ability without his own to piggyback freely the two of them would not be as effective of a team as they were.

Roman could hear a very enraged voice coming from somewhere not too far off he didn't have to bother guessing he knew it was Cinder, sinking deep into the bushes he watched alongside Neo as Cinder left the other two behind.

* * *

 **And Roman is caught up with everyone else!  
**

 **And in a single chapter man, I suck at writing for other people it took me fourteen chapters to get everyone else to this point and Roman just casually skip's all the boring Ozpin - Qrow - Taiyang - Jaune - Yang stuff, what a bastard.**

 **So if anyone is wondering yes Roman Torchwick is by far my favorite villain, honestly I want to add him to a STRQ story I'm planning on writing down the line but that's way down the line.**

 **I'm still a way's off from considering this done and I already have a second story for Remnant planned and the first few chapters finished but as it doesn't exactly follow the canon of the RWBY world so I'm constantly hitting starts and stops with it and I don't want it to have a weird hiatus so I'm making sure I have a solid amount of material prepped before I start releasing anything.**

 **Anyways lemme know what you think, I absolutely loved writing this chapter I have had it planned out in my head while I was writing the first chapter.**


	16. Chapter 16

The disconnection of her mind and body had gradually caused her senses to dim until she wasn't even aware of her surroundings, if she had been moved she was unsure she couldn't access any of her senses the only 'Thing" she felt was a perversion, albeit a perversion promising power, if, she could harness it.

Cinder's mind had become a battlefield of sorts, where she fought against the arachnid Grimm, it had taken her body in short order but her mind was a fortress, the abomination had repeatedly attacked first with seductive promises of power, ones that reeked of falsities, later it had attacked with bargains when it realized the promises would never work, not while her mind was whole.

Whatever patience the beast had was gone now though, the promises and bargains along with it, now the monster assaulted her mind with brute force trying to strip away the foundations of her fortress to step inside and take full possession of her form.

Cinder had planned for this, the beast had neither cunning or guile, once its patience ran short she saw her chance. The creature could do no real damage to her mind in its early assaults it had proved that by not even scratching the surface of her pristine mental fortress.

Cinder saw this as a chance, as the attacks continued she crafted inside her mind a prison while also making the Grimm feel as its assault was bearing fruit, she let it topple empty tower's she would form break through walls all gradually drawing the beast into her trap, its new home.

Gradually the monster stepped into her trap, walls and fortifications once crumbling and broken shimmered like a mirage in her mind and reformed into towering walls, a cage of iron and chains pushed the Grimm into the floor restricting all movement. The beast struggled for a moment in her mind and then went calm, instead, she felt a pain from somewhere outside her mind.

Cinder's senses were returning to her touch came first and with it a fierce pain in her chest.

 _"Iiiii, conceedddee!"_

Cinder pulled her cage back from the beast allowing it the freedom of movement but keeping it trapped. Once the beast felt freedom the pain in her chest vanished.

 _"I have imprisoned you, how can you harm me?"_ The Grimm did not reply, it was so quiet that Cinder wasn't even sure if she had heard its first words either.

 _"Fine, I have won, sit in there forever and stay quiet for all I care!"_ Cinder spoke to the trapped Grimm in her mind as sense's apart from touch slowly returned to her.

She tried opening her eyes but was confused why the simple motion did not seem to work she tried multiple times only realizing after multiple attempts her eyes were open and quite possibly have been since Salem dropped her unceremoniously on the floor, squeezing her eyes shut instead she felt around herself eventually realizing that she had been dropped and left exactly where she last remembered being.

"..." Cinder tried to call out but her mouth and throat were deathly dry and she could not even rasp out a tentative call.

 _How long has it been? Is it too late to fulfill my promise to Salem?_

Cinder's mind held back the panic that was trying to take hold.

 _I am alive! Which means I still have time to fulfill my promise!_

Feeling stiff and weak Cinder forced her form from the floor, her entire form ached at the moment telling her that her body had been perfectly rigid and motionless to the point where she was not confident her legs could hold her but she refused to kneel to such a simple problem when she could feel inside her the answer.

She wasn't sure how she knew to call on this new power or that she even knew it could what she wanted to but it felt natural.

Cinder circulated this new power through her body first focusing it on her weakened muscles, rapidly she could feel strength returning to her limbs the aches and pains vanished and she felt strong and whole again, next she brought the power to her eyes knowing somehow to slow the circulation of the power to more slowly and carefully repair her vision, if done to fast or too forcefully the power might have harmed her eyes past the point even they were capable of fixing, finally she focused on her throat and mouth these were repaired and she allowed the grasp she held on the power fade, immediately she felt like she was struck, only once but enough that doubled over in agony as she felt as a part of her had been ripped.

 _What is this? This power causes this level of pain?_

 _"Weakennnn, must surviveeee."_

With the return of the alien voice Cinder remembered Salem's warning about pulling power from her new source, too much would kill her, she hadn't realized every use had a cost.

"A painful lesson, but one better to learn now than at a more dangerous point in the future!"

Recovering from the pain she looked at her surround's with her now repaired eyesight, the chamber was much the same as before only darker as in the time she had spent here the windows had been covered with heavy drapes. Listening she tried to hear anything but the room was deathly silent except from her own breathing.

 _What did Salem say again? If I manage to make it outside I will be returned to Vale! I'm back on my feet but why does this feel to simple..._

Almost as if summoned through her thoughts an enormous Spider like Grimm crashed to the floor from the ceiling, the Grimm moved to place itself in front of the door Cinder knew would take her from this place, after reaching its destination the Grimm paused making no move.

 _So it will stop me from leaving but it also won't attack without me trying? or is it just instructed to remain by the door?_

Cinder observed her opponent, making no move herself lest that trigger it to attack. The arachnid Grimm easily dwarfed an Ursa in size and from the way she had watched it move the creature was far agiler than an Ursa could ever hope to be, it lacked a great deal of the white bone plating most Grimm sported, the only large mass's of the white material where at the ends of the beast's legs forming the legs into very deadly points.

Cinder risked a step and then several more when the creature did not make any move to attack her, instead just tracking where she went with its many eyes.

The mirror-like eyes of the Grimm never left her as she probed to see how the creature would react to her movements and gestures, it was hard to tell if it was even watching her as the eyes gave little indication of following her but whenever she moved far enough that one of the eyes would lose sight of her the entire beast would shift.

She had seen small insectoid like Grimm many time's before in and around Salem's home but she had never actually fought one and the prospect of doing so was daunting, more so after seeing the partially humanoid spider that showed a great deal of intellect. This one did not share that same feeling but Cinder was certain it was not a simpleton like most Grimm.

Figuring that there was no more to be gained from simply watching her opponents movements she decided to see what her new power allowed her, she lacked her weapons but with her Semblance, she was never unarmed. Pulling from her new source of power she hurled a pillar of fire from her hand larger than anything she had ever been able to perform before.

The Spider Grimm barely moved it fired a stream of fluid forward to meet the pillar of flame, a sort of tug of war started between the two, the flames were being blocked by the dense fluid and yet the fluid only had a finite distance it could travel before the flames eventually ignited it.

Learning her lesson from earlier Cinder ceased her attack but didn't let go of her mental grasp on the power, hoping that was enough to prevent the fiend in her mind from exacting its toll on her.

Ending her attack ended her opponents as well as it returned to its posture of guarding the door and watching herself.

 _Attacking will cause a response but it will not leave its post... if it's that simple how about this then..._

Underneath the Grimm, she ignited a fire intending for it explode into a pillar, so focused on her task she barely noticed the spider launch several small shots of webbing at her, she only managed to dodge at the last moment but the damage was done she had lost her concentration and let the power slip from her mental grasp, she readied herself for the backlash but after several moments of tense waiting the stabbing pain did not come.

 _Was what I used before more than what I've used in this fight? ...or are you aware harming me during a fight is not beneficial?_ She waited for a moment to see if her prisoner would speak but if it had an opinion on the matter it chose to remain silent once again. _Great! Well, if you're going to leave me be for now I'm going to deal with my problem!_

 _"Ourrrrsss"_

 _Sure, 'OUR' problem._

She stood and regarded her opponent again trying to ignore the fact that her prisoner seemed to speak more to her random thoughts than any direct question she would try.

Mentally grabbing hold of the power again she drew from it with hunger, behind her a dozen spears of fire formed and with a casual flick of her wrist she launched them at her opponent. Watching the spears streak forward she expected them to crash bodily against the Grimm, she was surprised when the Grimm lept above the attack and landed only scant feet from herself.

She had no time to dodge the spider-like Grimm spat a fluid from its mouth and only Cinders instincts managed to save her as she pulled a wall of flame in front of herself to reduce the attack to nothing, building off the wall she summoned she pushed it to surround her opponent, with the lack of armor and the proximity the beast retreated from the heat hissing a terrible shriek as it touched some of her fire as it ran.

Cinder pressed her advantage, pushing the wall of flame higher and further toward the Grimm knowing every time it shrieked in fury that it was still trapped inside an ever shrinking space. Unsure about the amount of space the Grimm had left to work with Cinder pushed the entire wall forward intending for it to engulf her opponent entirely, with a great effort she pushed her wall forward and was rewarded with an ear-splitting cry as her opponent was engulfed.

Her victory was short lived though as with the terrible cry came a new beast, the Spider/Human Grimm appeared before her and casually swatted Cinder away with a simple flick of one of its legs. with her concentration broke the wall of fire dissipated rapidly leaving a scorched room and revealing her opponent.

The Grimm had hastily built a shield from its own webbing likely being the only reason the Grimm was still alive, from the dark recess's of the ceiling several more arachnid Grimm decented and gathered it's wounded sibling and retreated back to their home.

Standing once more she watched as the leader of the spider-like Grimm regard her with an almost bored expression before returning to the ceiling as well.

 _I'm done, you can take whatever price you need to!_ She waited for the pain and yet still she felt nothing, unsure what to make of her apparently fickle prisoner she chose not to dwell on in and instead leave this place she had much to do and had no idea how much time had passed.

* * *

A single pair of eye's watched Cinder depart, all of her agents were gone on their own tasks leaving her thankfully alone, now with Cinder back on her feet and focused on her goal once again Salem's castle became dark and silent a black mark on top of a nondescript hill.

* * *

The beast she road carried her to the coast of Vale at a frightening pace, quicker than even the fastest Bullhead, though judging from the creatures sleek frame if the two every came into conflict a Bullhead would tear through the soft frame of her mount and likely not even notice it had hit anything.

Happy to be away from the creature she stared at the coast and frowned when she could not place where she was, the foliage and terrain spoke of Vale but she had gathered that to be her destination simply on the direction the beast had carried her.

Pulling out her scroll she sighed in relief as it flashed to life as it picked up the towers and more importantly allowed her to discover her location, smiling when she realized she was only a day's walk to Vale and that there was a well-traveled road ahead that she could mingle in with the normal traffic.

Now that she was in range of the towers she needed to discover how Emerald and Mercury have been handling things in the weeks they had been separated.

Cinder hit send and waited for Emerald to reply, the Scroll had barely had time to ring before an anxious-sounding Emerald answered.

"Cinder? Is this you?"

"Is something wrong Emerald?" Cinder asked trying not to sound too concerned at the anxiousness in Emerald's voice.

A sigh of relief came through the scroll. "No, not anymore, thing's in Vale have progressed... decently... where are you I can meet with you and fill you in before you meet with Roman."

"I am a day's walk from Vale, don't worry about coming to get me, just fill me in on what has been happening."

Cinder listened to Emerald explain the events that had been happening in her absence.

She frowned at the thought of Roman leaving, particularly if he had already acquired all the dust she needed months in advance of the deadline she had given him, but if the man had left she had unfortunately neither the time nor the resources to track him down and hoped Emerald could keep him in Vale for at least one more night to allow her to 'Improve' upon their earlier arrangement.

The news that Emerald had to expose her Semblance was unfortunate but that coupled with the news that no warrant for any of their arrests or even mention of their attack in any form had been in any news source made her immediately throw away her plan of infiltrating Beacon to be closer to the Tower.

"Some changes will have to be made, try and keep Roman in Vale for one more night, but if you cannot we don't have time to waste on him, he has fulfilled his arrangement. Contact our agent in the Fang, find me Taurus!" Cinder smiled as she planned for her meeting with the arrogant Faunus.

* * *

Roman glanced at his scroll idly as he watched it vibrate across the bar, he grabbed the device only after it had stopped and read the message.

'Cinder just made contact, will be in Vale tomorrow.'

 _Well isn't that good news for me!_ Standing, Roman finished his drink and looked to Neo who had long since finished her alcoholic treat and was pleased to see him take to his feet, hopping down from the counter where she had chosen to sit instead of one of the many Bar stools she stepped in pace beside him with an inquisitive look.

"She's back! We are going to prepare..." Roman looked at his partner with concern for a moment. "Just so were clear prepare does not mean we are trying to kill her!" Roman looked sternly at Neo who just shrugged and nodded, she was content to wait for whatever moment Roman decided was the right one.

* * *

She was led through a new warehouse one she was certain she had never been in yet but from the look's of it was just another throw away hideout that Roman seemed to have access too, though this one appeared better maintained than most, the walls had been painted recently the path's between containers of Dust was clear of refuse and reaching the back there were several rooms that appeared lived in, looking through the doors she passed she spied a clean and recently used kitchen and two rooms that appeared to function as sleeping quarters for Roman and whatever help he was currently employing.

Passing these rooms her guide stopped to open a door for her and let her inside.

"SO, the prodigal 'Paycheck" returns from her mysterious vacation!" she watched Roman smile as he spoke, if this was her first meeting with the man with the power she now held she might have ended him then and there but she had seen the results of his efforts and doubted she could find another so competent on short notice.

"Is that really a proper way to refer to your employer?"

"It might not be but to be fair an employer usually pay's their employee's." understanding what Roman eluded to she pulled a thick envelope from the depths of her outfit.

"That should cover the work you have done for me, plus there is a bonus for completing your job so efficiently." She smiled as Neo picked up the envelope, not even bothering to open it she hefted it's weight and nodded.

"I feel ever so much better now that I have been paid in full for my services... now though Emerald inform's me you might have need of me still?"

"Yes, while you are disrespectful and rude, and more often than not I would rather end your life than hold a conversation with you, unfortunately, are quite gifted in your work and I have need of the skill's you exhibit." she did not smile at how much Roman shrugged off the blatant threat, so casual was he that she wasn't even sure if Roman had listened to her.

"Fill me in on what you need and let's get to work then."

Cinder set about laying out her new revised plan that she had spent the past day thinking over, deciding what parts were worth keeping and what parts needed to be abandoned completely.

As the day wore on and Roman had left to start his new task Mercury arrived dragging a very reluctant Faunus behind him.

"You have no idea how many holes 'LITERAL' hole's I had to crawl through to catch this bastard." Cinder would have smiled if except both her associate and the Faunus smelt heavily of raw sewage.

"I will make this quick and on the smell alone you better give the the answer I want the first time or there will be now second chance am I clear?" Grimacing against the smell she watched the rat whiskered Faunus nod nervously.

"Where is Adam Taurus?"

"That's all you wish, that is easy he is three days travel, North through Forever Fall, he has lost something and hasn't moved in week's." She smiled as the Faunus was released from Mercury's grasp and it quickly fled the area, Mercury following suit when she motioned for him to leave and she assumed he was happy to do so as he left with great haste presumably in search of a shower.

* * *

Screams of terror flitted through the camp, Cinder gazed happily over her handiwork as she watched powerless Faunus flee their burning encampment seeking shelter from the flames in the woods surrounding them.

She had left her companions in Vale, they had work they must attend to and she did not require their assistance on the simple matter of bringing Adam Taurus to heel.

Confidently she walked through the camp, the flames she had created were minimal not targeting any important looking tents, her flames licked around her as she walked to a tent she recognized from her last visit, outside the shelter she found her reason for being here.

"Mr. Taurus, I was wondering if you have had a chance to reconsider your previous refusal of my offer to work together." Cinder smiled as she watched the Faunus sheath his blade and nodded once to his few followers brave enough to stand beside him.

* * *

 **A fairly short chapter, though that's a good thing as I'm part way into the next already and were back to beacon with Jaune and the gang!**

 **I didn't like this chapter and was glad I placed it after the Roman one as the energy I had from writing his helped me push through a boring Cinder Chapter, made even worse that she was alone for the most of it.**

 **I enjoy Cinder as a villian, she's a good planner and is definitely menacing the only thing I wish Rooster Teeth would do is develop the motives behind her actions, as it stands now she is loyal to Salem, why though as far as the viewer is concerned Salem did not give her any power she forced Cinder to earn it on her own, I really hope Volume 5 makes us understand Cinders true connection with Salem.**

 **Alright, what else...**

 **Oh, readers and views have spiked something fierce these past couple weeks, not sure what caused that but hello all you new people.**

 **Hmm, not much else...**

 **Alright well, hope you enjoyed the chapter short as it is and lemme know what you think.**

 **Oh right before people ask me about the spider Grimm I'm just gonna throw it out there that the Spider/Human Grimm is essentially a D &D Drider, also Spiders creep me the fuck out so I figured why not make Salem even creepier to me by having her have Spider Grimm.**


	17. Chapter 17

.Jaune stared at his breakfast and already felt the stomach ache, as it had every other day since Pyrrha had discovered his typical morning meal. He had protested but it fell on deaf ears, even Yang had sided with Pyrrha, although Jaune was confident this was payback from Signal where Jaune refused to come to Yang's aid when dealing with her groupie's.

Jaune stared at his teammates and friends more reserved breakfast's with envy, well not so much Nora's breakfast as she tucked away entire stacks of pancakes into her bottomless hole she called a stomach. Staring once more into his plate with misery he looked to Blake for his daily salvation from the tortures forced upon him by Pyrrha and Yang.

Blake could offer no help this morning as Pyrrha had noticed him pawning off part of his meal to the girl who readily accepted instead of joining the morning breakfast cue, today Blake had her breakfast prepared by Pyrrha as well, the Spartan had observed what Blake would take from Jaunes tray and delivered her an adequate breakfast as well much more reserved in size than Jaune's mountainous helping.

Jaune looked to the Redhead and found her and the Blonde happily watching him, Pyrrha happy to be helping her teammate and Yang grinning at his obvious misery.

"Eat up Jaune, today is the first day of combat lessons you're going to need to energy if you get chosen." Yang chimed from across the table, grinning widely to herself enjoying his discomfort.

"Maybe you should increase your helpings as well then, you are just as likely to be chosen as I am." Jaune motioned to their breakfasts.

"What and possibly damage our beautiful womanly figures?" Yang said as she stood dragging Pyrrha with her and posing for Jaune, she had learned early on that if it was just her Jaune would easily ignore her antic's but if she dragged the Spartan into the mix she would get the reaction she desired, it helped that Pyrrha was a good sport and went along with her partners schemes.

"Hey, OW, let go that hurts!"

The entire table turned to look at the source of the call, Jaune took this as the distraction he needed and quickly vanished with his overflowing tray and abandoned it at another table while joining the breakfast cue to get something more reasonable.

Watching from across the cafeteria he spied Velvet extract herself from Cardin's group and passed by the table he normally sat at, he smiled when the Redhead and Blonde finally noticed him missing and tracking him down to the cue before turning to each other and most likely discussing something Jaune doubted he would enjoy.

He watched as Cardin walked past his table and wondered what would happen if he wasn't there to intercept him like he normally did, it appeared he would walk easily past the table only that as he passed the last bench well past where any of his friends and teammates sat Cardin collapsed into a pile on the floor, Jaune wasn't sure what happened until Cardin got back to his feet and saw the boy covered in an assortment of breakfast foods, ones that likely spilled off his overflowing tray he had escaped with.

Jaune sighed in relief as Cardin scanned the entire hall and not finding anyone to blame for this incident lets the cafeteria red faced.

 _Would not have surprised me if he still managed to blame me for that!_

Jaune returned to the table with his friends with his normal morning meal though to make Pyrrha happy he had made the helping larger in hopes the girl would be convinced to leave him to gather his own breakfast in the morning going forward.

"You know you could have just eaten what you wanted off that tray." Yang pointed out the obvious solution.

"I could have yes, but like you said today is combat lessons I would rather fight if called on with a far less heavy food's in my stomach." Jaune retorted and smiled when he received a nod from Pyrrha that she understood what he was saying. "So if Ms. Goodwitch gives us a choice can we expect to see a rematch between the two of you?" Judging by the look of excitement in Pyrrha's eyes she hoped for just such a chance, while the look in Yang's betrayed a great dealing of loathing directed at himself, for reminding the Spartan of the possibility of that happening.

"I would relish such an event!" Pyrrha's eyes widened and her smile spread further as she thought of the opportunity.

"Yes, That would be just... great!" Yang said with a great deal less enthusiasm, to which Jaune was glad the overly excited Pyrrha had not noticed.

Smiling with the distraction Jaune invested himself in his meal.

* * *

"Alright, some of those match's were shorter than I anticipated and we have time for another fight before the end of the lesson, do I have any volunteers?" Glynda scanned the crowd of students wincing at the memories of the three students who had gone against Yang, Pyrrha and Ruby. The three girls had easily dealt with their opponents, she had expected as much from Ms. Nikos and Ms. Long but the young reaper had been a surprise, Taiyang's reports on her abilities were thorough but seemed to not accurately express the level of skill the girl had in controlling her Semblance.

 _Ms. Nikos wants to fight again..._ Glynda followed Pyrrha's line of sight and it was focused steadily on Yang who had just finished her match. _I don't think so, on multiple levels._ Glynda had a flash of concern of both girls going all out against each other and tearing apart her classroom. _Who else, Ms. Schnee is volunteering._ She flipped through her notes trying to find a student who might stand a chance against a Dust manipulator. _Ozpin did say to test the boy... I'm sorry Mr. Arc!_

Weiss Schnee, you will face Jaune Arc for the final match of the day.

* * *

Jaune who hadn't been paying attention up till this point snapped to attention when he heard his name called, he had expected to fight Cardin as he normally would and was caught off guard when his opponent changed.

"You, want me to fight Weiss?"

"That is right Mr. Arc now please make your way to the stage."

"I Forfeit!"

Glynda's eyebrow twitched ever so slightly. "On what ground's do you believe I would allow you to forfeit before even attempting to fight?"

"Simple, this is an impossible encounter for me. Our fighting styles are severely mismatched!" Jaune spoke remaining seated.

"Being a huntsman you will commonly encounter enemies that you are not ideally matched up against, such opponents would not allow you to concede." Glynda spoke to the seated Jaune from personal experience.

"True but if I was against an opponent who used long range attacks in an open area would not my first order be to retreat and try to lure my opponent into a more confined space to nullify their advantage?" Jaune knew he was right this was a very lesson Glynda would teach to them in the future he wasn't actually sure what she hoped to achieve by pitting a solely melee fighter against a powerful ranged dust manipulator.

"That might be a valid and logical point, but this is a simple classroom so if you would please humor me and get to the stage please!"

Jaune saw that he was not going to escape this fight and relented and made his way down to the stage and his waiting opponent who looked very unsure of herself.

 _Just take a few hit's and this will be over in no time, it's not like I was wrong I stand no realistic chance against Weiss in this form of combat._

Above him, an alarm sounded signaling the fight to start and Jaune prepared to start dodging the ranged attacks he expected only to be blindsided by Weiss as she flashed toward him and struck him with her blade.

 _Why is she bothering to attack in melee?_ Bringing his heavy armguard around Jaune batted away Weiss's light weapon and stepped in with his own blade, making sure to adjust his speed to allow Weiss more than enough time to dodge his blows but not enough to make it look like he was holding back.

Glyphs appeared around him, with Weiss flashing between them her blade dancing forth many times and scoring blows, Jaune was shocked at the ability Weiss exhibited, he couldn't remember ever having an encounter with her and had assumed she would just bombard him with long range attacks as she clearly had the advantage, this full melee barrage had rattled him that she could pressure him so much.

 _Still, no real reason to try and win even if she is getting close enough for me to hit back._ Jaune relaxed his guard and put on a show that he couldn't keep up with Weiss's speed and took several hits finally reducing his Aura enough for Ms. Goodwitch to end the bout.

* * *

She eyed Jaune with curiosity, Ruby had told her all about how Jaune was a very skilled fighter and she had been quite happy to have been pitted against him. Even after he tried to forfeit and listening to the reasons she understood that he read how the encounter would have played out with surprising ease. She had intended to bombard Jaune and see if he was as skilled a fighter as Ruby claimed, could overcome her attack. Only after he had reluctantly gotten to the ring did she realize he was not going to make an effort to close the distance, everything about his body language was of someone who was just going to put on a show and quit when he had a chance.

She should have been angry that he didn't even care to fight her, but as she thought about it, he had made it clear he knew he had no hope of winning and was only participating because their teacher had left him no option. It was then she decided to throw away her advantage and give Jaune a fair fight, though she wasn't above taking advantage of his assumption she wouldn't just bombard him and she scored an easy blow.

After her strong opening hit she felt like her arm was going to be removed from its socket as Jaune had casually batted away her sword with what felt like a hammer, he had pressed his advantage with several quick slices that she couldn't even see, yet for some reason kept falling short, like he intended to miss.

That thought had formed in her mind and enraged her she had used her glyphs to break past his defences and she was finally doing damage, albeit not much Jaune would react to many of her blows and they would strike on his armor saving his aura from any real damage, She had been about to admit defeat and fall back to attack him at range when the strangest thing happened, Jaune stopped reacting or more precisely he had started to take hits, he would purposefully move to make a blow land stronger and take more of his Aura.

Ms. Goodwitch had called the fight announcing her the victor but she had felt anything but victorious, she had felt like she was the butt of some joke, except she couldn't or didn't understand the punchline.

"Ruby? Is Jaune always like that?" She asked her partner as they walked with the group to their next lesson.

"Hmm, what do you mean, like what?"

"Well, you spoke of him as someone quite skilled and even praise him as the one who helped you with issues with your weapon and Semblance. I'm just curious does he not apply himself in combat lessons?" Weiss asked as she watched Jaune as he walked with his team apparently being on the receiving end of a joke from Yang which if she heard correctly had something to do with his recent fight.

"OH! I understand what you mean. Hmmm... Jaune doesn't try!" Ruby spoke with a form of finality that her simple statement resolved Weiss's question.

"What do you mean he doesn't try? You mean he's not interested right?"

"No, he takes fights seriously, this happened a lot at Signal. I overheard my dad and uncle talk about it a bunch. Jaune would probably have been the best fighter at Signal according to both of them, Even better than Yang. I think he just doesn't like to show off, he would lose to people all the time. Once I overheard my dad talking about it I began to notice how Jaune would fight differently in every combat class!" Ruby spoke with excitement as her eyes kept glancing at Jaune and back to Weiss.

"Have you ever seen him fight seriously?" Weiss was intrigued, with her own experience just now she easily believed that Jaune could be as capable as Ruby suggested he was.

"No, but I have seen what his and Yang's training grounds looked like after they went all out and they must have been seriously going at it with how much the ground and trees were torn up." Ruby pulled out her Scroll and hastily found some of the pictures she had taken after finding one of the sites and showed Weiss smiling as her partner's eye's widened at seeing the destruction in the photos.

"The two of them did that in one match?" Weiss scrolled through the photos and was shocked at the scorch marks and shredded foliage, she eyed one photo with a great deal of interest as it appeared to have a tree nearly severed in half.

"Well they would use some sites multiple times but I think that was done with a single fight." Ruby said as Weiss handed back the Scroll.

Before Weiss could continue asking questions she ran into the back of another student and she felt Nora who had been behind her bump into her.

"How about you ditch the wimp and come hang out with a team of winners!" Cardin stood confidently blocking the hall as he addressed the women of team ABYN, his team behind him trying to matching Cardin's confidence.

"Or how about you leave before we embarrass you in front of the entire school!" the normally quiet Blake spoke first drawing a shocked glance from her entire team that she was the first to respond.

Yang stared at her partner from her past life in shock, she doubted the Blake she remembered would have been the first to defend a member of her team in the past life and yet here she was confidently standing up for Jaune, even if Yang knew Jaune didn't need it. She smiled at the memory of how he had casually dealt with Cardin in her other life and knew that Jaune could easily deal with Cardin with comic ease.

Yang stepped forward placing herself beside Blake as a wall in front of Jaune. "You heard the women, your thinking pretty highly of yourselves if you think you can handle the ladies of team ABYN." Yang smiled at the nod she received from Blake and felt more assured as Pyrrha stepped forward as well.

"Um..." Jaune moved to stand in front of his team blocking them and Cardin from each other. "I'm not really sure anyone wants to see where this is going so how about this, lets all just forget about this weird hallway conversation and carry on with our day, hmmm, yes, sounds good, alright... no ones moving..." Jaune looked to Yang who looked to be almost spoiling for a fight and his other two teammates seemed ready to assist, looking at Cardin he could see he was going to be as stubborn as always and not back down either regardless of how foolish he would look.

 _Why are you always so damn stupid in the beginning, can't you grow a brain without having someone beat it into you, and you Yang you should know better, I told you to ignore Cardin, are you doing this because Blake stood up for me first?_

Jaune was saved from his dilemma of trying to end the fight by Ms. Goodwitch appearing behind the group and forcing her way through to discover the commotion.

"Students! Please do not block the halls! Also, I am sure you should be on your way to your next lesson with Professor Port!" She eyed the two groups sternly and they immediately relented, neither wanting to risk spending a detention with the strict teacher.

* * *

"You should have just let the fight happen I would have enjoyed showing the smug idiot what the bottom of my boot looked like!" Yang grumbled as they were finally let out of Ports extra long lesson.

"I agree, teaching him a lesson might have made him more respectful towards other, or at least less confident in his ability to be so rude." Blake chimed in as she seemed more invested in not letting the topic drop and had agreed multiple times that Cardin should be brought down a peg or two.

"Jaune made the right choice though, Cardin and his team would stand no chance against us and his frustration might have just led to him being worse to others if he could not be made to see things with a new perspective." Pyrrha added standing up for their leaders choice.

"Uh, thanks, Pyrrha, it wasn't much of a choice, I don't care to spend the next month alone while you would all be in detention for hospitalizing another student." He smiled wryly at his team as Blake and Pyrrha looked sheepishly at the floor and Yang just cracked a knowing grin. "Still now that you three made him look a fool... well more of a fool he's likely to do something dumb to try and save whatever image he thinks he has of himself!"

"What do you think he might do? I'm fairly certain he wouldn't challenge any of us to a fight." Jaune was surprised at Yang she would know that Cardin would target him assuming him to be the weak link of the team and the easy target.

"People like him can be quite cunning or cruel, especially when you don't expect it of them." Blake sounded angry as she spoke, Jaune and Yang exchanged a brief, concerned, glance over the heads of their teammates.

"Well, I believe we should hope for the best and believe that Cardin will be above such petty revenge." The redhead added as the team reached their dorm and retired for the day.

* * *

Jaune had made a point to beat Pyrrha and Yang to the Cafeteria this morning and had succeeded being the first of his team to enter and already having his tray filled, not trusting his teammates to not kill him slowly through high cholesterol.

The morning routine was the same, teams would filter in, have breakfast and kill time until lesson's started and then depending who you were assigned to would wander off in varying levels of excitement or dread. This morning was interrupted again by Cardin making a loud ass of himself by tormenting the same rabbit-eared Faunus from the day before.

Jaune was about to slide out from the bench and confront Cardin but was stopped when he heard a very clear smack echo through the Cafeteria. He quickly did a head count of his teammates, he was confused, Blake was still in her seat though she was gripping the book she was reading so hard her knuckles had gone white, Pyrrha had stood up and was staring across the hall with a concerned expression and Yang had climbed on the table to get a better view of the scene.

"You should be ashamed of yourselves, we are here to better the world and all you four are doing is tormenting a poor girl who has done nothing to deserve the treatment you're giving her!" Weiss's voice echoed through the entire hall and as Jaune could see somehow managed to cow the large Cardin into submission as the boy shrank away from Weiss's fury as she continued her verbal assault for several minutes before deeming he had learned his lesson and left him to return to her team, but not before surprisingly stopping to check if the rabbit-eared Faunus was alright which she apparently was as she joined team WNRR for the rest of the morning Breakfast.

 _Huh... How... Wait, you know what, I don't even care, good for you Weiss!_

Jaune watched as Yang sent him repeated looks of concern and having no answer he just shrugged back to her in response.

"Good for Weiss, I don't think Cardin will live down that embarrassment for a very long time and it seems she had made a new friend, I'm going to go over and say hello myself." Pyrrha took her leave from her team and went to sit with Team WNRR.

"Hrrmmf."

Jaune and Yang stared at Blake who continued to clutch her book with a death like grip, Yang stared apprehensively unsure what was going through Blakes mind.

"Um, Blake? I'm not sure if you noticed but you appear to be trying to choke your book." Jaune motioned to Blake's hands and that seemed to set her free from whatever spell she was under, without a word she stood and left the Cafeteria not even saying goodbye to her teammates.

Yang and Jaune shared a mutually concerned look before immediately following suit, Yang fearful of Blake disappearing well before anyone even mentions the White Fang and Jaune followed for a similar reason unsure what was prompting these new reactions from Blake.

They didn't travel far as Blake had only exited the Cafeteria and had come to a stop shortly outside the door.

"Um, are you alright Blake?" Jaune asked, feeling a little remorseful when he noticed her start at his voice. _Oh, come on, I wasn't even trying to sneak that time!_

"Yes, I'm fine I just needed... some fresh air is all." Blake responded after taking stock that she had exited the building.

Jaune exchanged a glance with Yang, and against his better judgment decided to press the issue, at least a little bit.

"You can dispense with the lame excuse, something about what just happened in their is bothering you, we may have only been made partners recently but ever since we were I don't think I've seen you act on your own once, yesterday standing up to Cardin and today with whatever happened just now." Jaune was happy to see that instead of getting fully defensive instead, Blake's shoulders relaxed somewhat.

"Was it really so out of character that in the short time you've known me that something was wrong?" Jaune was glad he had lifetimes of practice keeping a straight face, doubly glad when he noticed Yang's face seeming to fluctuate between mirth and concern that Blake was not looking at her.

"I'm glad you are concerned about me but Weiss handled the issue and hopefully Cardin will leave the Faunus alone from now on!"

Jaune watched as Blake's fists clenched open and closed rapidly. _Is she angry about not stepping in herself or is this something else?_ Jaune flitted his eyes to Blake's bow hoping it might betray her true emotions.

"What are you looking at?" Blake noticed the ever so subtle shift in Jaune's line of sight.

 _Oh come on, that was a fraction of a second at best!_ Jaune let out a heavy sigh and prepared to lie his way through another conversation.

"I, uh, well 'WE'," Jaune gestured to Yang. "know about your disguise... sorry!"

Blake reached up and touched her bow tentatively before responding. "How long have you known?"

"Your bow kinda gave it away, it uh, moves too much when it shouldn't and not enough when it should!" Jaune wasn't wrong he had watched her Bow, in many lifetimes when she walked the bow was almost rigid and unflexible but if he was sitting reading a book her bow would constantly shift and fidget as Blake would pick up faint noises all around her. "That coupled with you standing up for me yesterday, first I thought it was for my benefit but now I think it was an easy excuse to pay Cardin back for picking on that other Faunus!"

 _There, a nice easy, believable, lie not even too many plot holes she could poke in it._

"Is that why Yang is so uncomfortable around me?" Blake said as she motioned to the Blonde who so far hadn't said anything.

Jaune looked at Yang willing her to say something but with Blake's mention of her awkwardness seemed to cause Yang to shrink back from the conversation. "Yang has a different issue with you that's partially my fault." _I've already built this lie with Ozpin I might as well roll with it, maybe Blake will accept it as easily as Ozpin did._

"How is it your fault she's so weird about me!" Blake was starting to get upset at the way this conversation was progressing, first, two of her teammates know she was hiding being a Faunus and now her partner and leader is claiming to be responsible for why Yang was so uncomfortable around herself.

"I have an unusual Semblance one that gives me 'Insight' into people and events. It is hard to explain so I normally just tell people I don't have a Semblance or I don't know what it is. Anyways, in the past my Semblance activated in a weird way and allowed myself and Yang to experience an event that you were there for, Yang and I experienced it from different perspectives so I'm not exactly sure what she saw and it is not my place to speak on it but ever since she saw you at initiation she's afraid getting to close to you might cause that event to happen!" Jaune finished his lie and was at least happy to see Blake had listened intently to his story and that she was looking at Yang with a softer expression but one still filled with questions.

"I... uh, don't really know what else I can add, I'm going to head back inside. Sorry for making this weird!" With that Jaune ducked quickly inside the building feeling sorely out of place around the two girls all of a sudden.

* * *

Yang was a mixed bag of emotion's, she knew Jaune had lied through omittance about his Semblance and what it truly was but the fact he shared enough caused her to want to strangle him, yet at the same time in the very back of her mind a part of her felt a small sense of relief, which was instantly quashed as she turned to look at Blake and her blood froze as her partner was staring very intently at her.

"Is what Jaune said true? Are you afraid of me due to something that happened with his Semblance?" she was concerned. _This is too strange, from the way Jaune spoke, Yang at least met me in this event they experienced, does she know about my past then?_

"I... I am not afraid of you! I'm afriad of the consequences of us being friends!" Yang felt tears forming around her eyes and did little to hold them in check. "I... met you in the past, or future, I mean I'm not sure." Yang's mind reeled at trying to keep the story her and Jaune had worked to develop straight. "I was weak and hurt and you saved me, you protected me, you gave your life for me and I... I didn't... I didn't even know why!" Yang began to hyperventilate as the memory returned, she had refused to focus on it and buried it deep in her mind hiding it away so that she would never have to relive that moment again, but now as her emotions crumbled it flooded back all at once and she collapsed under the weight of it.

Yang felt alone and dejected she wanted to find Jaune, he would make this right, he fixed everything, this was a mistake and she just wanted to hide, she had almost mustered the strength to get back to her feet when she felt arms wrap around her.

"I don't know what you experienced, frankly I don't care, but if I was willing to give my life for you in this vision or event or whatever it was, then I am confident that you would have earned my trust and respect!" Blake pulled the Blonde tighter into her hug trying to do her best to comfort her in her obvious distress.

They sat outside the cafeteria for many long minutes and eventually Yang calmed down enough that she was coherent again.

"I'm sorry I have been so weird Blake and I don't know if I can ever be normal around you but trust me when I say I don't ever want you to doubt me as a friend!" Yang looked at Blake in earnest hoping her partner believed in her declaration.

"If you're this upset about something that hasn't happened I would be happy to be your friend." Blake nodded to Yang's declaration.

Suddenly a thought crossed Yang's mind, they were only just outside the exterior doors to the Cafeteria, surely by now, someone should have interrupted them. Yang turned and opened the door to find Jaune standing guard, forcing any student who wanted to pass through the doorway to take another route. Yang walked up to Jaune's turned back and wrapped him in a tight affectionate hug "Thank, you!"

Blake watched this exchange and smiled at how her partner and leader had read the situation so well and as she walked by to reenter the cafeteria she placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him a smile as she went to meet the new Faunus team WNRR had made friends with.

* * *

 **This was a fun one!**

 **Jaune's little lie/half truth/explanation is really working out well for him in bullshitting his way through conversations, isn't it?**

 **I wanted to add more of the interaction between Weiss and Cardin but it honestly felt better leaving it to my imagination that Weiss could easily when angered talk anyone into a veritable cage that they would not escape from.**

 **Also, I kinda needed to get Cardin out of the way for other plans I have for Forever Fall.**

 **Hmm what else, well its Easter and I will be traveling so this is likely my only update for the week, and yes I know I have said that before and dropped a chapter out of nowhere a day later and who know's I might do that again but I doubt I'll have the time.**

 **Anyways lemme know what you think!**

* * *

 _Yang slowly opened her eyes wincing at the light, it burned almost as bad as her_ numerous _other injuries._

 _Remembering the injuries she forced the final sluggish thoughts from her mind, she hadn't been sleeping, no she had_ been knocked unconscious _by 'HIM" the thought of the demented Faunus burned in Yang's mind and made her missing arm ache._

 _Yang was laying on the floor of one on Signal's many classrooms, a dozen or more White Fang grunts casually milled around the room._

 _"Oh, has the corruptor finally woken up." Yang turned to a voice that seethed with destain as it spoke. "You have, and right on time, 'My Beloved' just joined us as well having just woke up from her most recent nap."_

 _Yang turned to see a horribly wounded Blake, she was propped against the wall at a weird angle, one of her arms hanging limply at her side, broken multiple times and even had bone sticking out in multiple places._

 _Yang looked beyond the arm she could see and the rest of Blake was, just as horrific to look at her other arm was missing just above the elbow but had been brutally cauterized, her legs we bloody mess's crushed and broken, most horrifying of all was Blake's head._

 _Blakes heritage had been removed, her Faunus ears had been cut from her skull, Yang forced down the urge to vomit at the sign's of obvious torture her partner had endured, she crawled across the floor her own legs could not carry her weight, she came to sit beside Blake ignoring the disgusting beast behind her who seemed inclined to watch._

 _Yang was certain that Blake was dead, Adam was wrong no one could have lived through this but as she touched Blake's face, an eye flashed open clear and focused first with hatred but softening to concern when it saw Yang._

 _Yang was roughly pulled away._

 _"My, Beloved! You have another decision to make!" Adam crouched down in front of Blake. "Who's life is worth more yours or this human filth!" Adam spoke with a quiet calmness._

 _Yang was shocked to hear Blake speak clearly and coherently. "My answer is the same as it has been these past hours, Yang's life has been and always will be more important than my own..." If she had more to say she never got the chance as Adam had tired of this and finally slit her throat._

 _"My, Beloved gave her life for you... foolish as that may be, she could have spared herself this fate and given you a quick and painless death... something I won't!" Adam lashed out and struck Yang in the face. Whatever response he had hoped for crying was not the one he expected._

 _In the distance, Adam heard the sounds of quick decisive combat._

 _"Go find out what that was." With his order, the White fang troops in the room left him alone._

 _"I wonder, who might be coming now, maybe another of your friends, should I see if this one thinks you're as important as My Beloved did?"_


	18. Chapter 18

Yang was feeling pretty good, and she had every reason to.

Sure she was still super, uncomfortable around this new Blake, but at least she could have a conversation with her now without freezing. Blake had even told Pyrrha about being a Faunus so that there would be no secrets on the team, well aside from Jaune and her own, but she excluded that from the table of secrets, mostly on the fact that who would believe it at this point anyways!

Much time had passed since that day and Yang had enjoyed every minute of it, Jaune had once told her that for him at least, during his early lives the time before their trip to Forever Fall he was a train wreck. Once he had learned to deal with Cardin it had actually become a very relaxing time for him.

She wouldn't exactly call Jaune relaxed from her perspective currently though. Yes, he was getting enough rest and doing everything that would be expected of a teenager but she could tell he was worried about the changes he had mentioned before.

Roman not being at the dust robbery before Beacon could be easily explained away with a slew of reasons, sure he didn't think it had ever happened before but he readily admitted to openly ignoring that event a long long time ago.

Emerald and Mercury robbing banks, that had Jaune concerned and she would constantly find him whenever he had a spare minute sifting through months of old news reports about, well, everything. Too add to the confusion there had been no White Fang activity mentioned in Vale for month's not beforehand and certainly not while they had been attending Beacon, at this point Roman would have been tied to the Dust robberies that weren't happening, and he would be loosely associated with the White Fang, well at least the rumors would have been started to form, she remembered he was only confirmed to work with them after the events at the docks.

Today wasn't a day for worrying about that though, Team ABYN and Team WNRR had a free day and she had decided to spend the day with her sister in Vale, do some light shopping and generally take it easy.

It wasn't hard to steal her sister from her team, Weiss had ambushed Jaune and forced him into a study session, team leaders only, the girl was adamant to become the best academic student in the school and Jaune for some reason or other was torturing her by always being better. She had wanted to ask him about that but figured that he was enjoying himself on some level and left it at that.

Ren and Nora did exactly what Ren and Nora always did which was for Nora, have too much energy and Ren to follow Nora and try and prevent as much damage as possible.

Pyrrha had talked Blake into some combat training, well Jaune had mentioned developing some combination attack's and Pyrrha had loved the thought of it and had already spent time with both herself and Jaune and finally managed to corner Blake into participating, Blake had appeared grumpy about it but Yang knew her former partner from her past life enjoyed appearing grumpy but it was never her actual mood the bow gave away how excited she was.

"Ready to go yet, Ruby?" She asked as she watched the two teams, her friends, split into their groups for the day and go there separate ways as Ruby appeared from a corner wearing her usual combat clothing. She had long since given up trying to get Ruby to wear more casual clothes when not doing hunter work but her sister loved the outfit and refused to budge on the subject much the same way she hadn't in her other life.

"Yup I just had to make sure I had everything!" Ruby walked forward and Yang immediately noticed her sister was loaded for combat, she was not only wearing her combat uniform but also had Crescent Rose strapped to her back and several Dust cartridges tucked into her belt.

"Uh, Ruby? You do know we are just going into Vale for shopping right? What's with the arsenal?"

"I could ask you the same thing! You wear Ember Celica everywhere. Why can't I bring Crescent Rose along?"

Yang watched her sister with amusement. Ember Celica and Crescent Rose were two starkly different weapons. While her sister's weapon collapsed down to an impressively small form it was still quite obviously a weapon to even the most untrained observer, Ember Celica was a small weapon already it collapsed into comically small bracelets that would easily be mistaken as jewelry.

"How about this, I leave Ember Celica behind and you do the same with Crescent Rose?" she knew Ruby would not be convinced any other way with the attachment her sister had for her weapon she assumed others were the same way.

"I-I guess that's fair..." Ruby pouted but with Yang giving up her weapon she had no real argument to bring Crescent Rose along anymore.

* * *

The day had passed with a measured pace and the two had done some shopping, they had even gone to see a new movie and generally had a very peaceful day as far as Yang was concerned.

She had missed this in the entire repeat, she felt like she had not spent enough time with her sister and this was feeling like visual proof, not that Ruby was aware of this. In her past life, she would make time for Ruby but she had her own friends and they, at the time seemed so much more important than they really were.

Even after joining Beacon together she had barely spent much time with her, sure they were on the same team had the same class's and everything but in her entire memory of her last life, she could not remember too many instances where she had just hung out with Ruby.

"Hey, let's eat here before we head back, I'm sure your as tired of cafeteria food as I am!" Yang motioned to a diner that advertised having a Bakery attached knowing the prospect of fresh cookies would easily convince Ruby to eat here instead of Beacon.

Her sister didn't even say anything as she could see through the windows that behind glass cases there were several dozen different types of cookies and other pastries.

They entered and were buffeted by the mixed smell of freshly brewed Coffee and baked goods.

Yang was happy to see Ruby enjoying herself and even indulged her by letting her order more cookies that even Ruby could possibly eat in hopes that some might make it back to Beacon to be shared.

After eating their fill the day had worn on to late afternoon and they turned to head back to Beacon.

"Hey Yang, can I ask you a question about Jaune?"

"Sure, but why do you need to ask me the question? wouldn't it be better to get the answer from him?"

"I think he would just distract me with training tips like always and he's really good about getting me off topic." Yang watched as her sister's brows furrowed in frustration as she knew the emotion Jaune could ellict if he wasn't keen to deal with a subject.

"Alright, what do you want to know about Jaune?" Yang asked and was confused by her sister as Ruby seemed to be struggling to figure out how to word her question.

"Why-why doesn't Jaune try? Like in combat lessons he almost never wins a fight and I know from overhearing Dad and Uncle Qrow talk about him when he was at Signal that both figure he was stronger than everyone, even you, I figured you trained with him do you know why he doesn't try?" Ruby looked at her sister waiting for some profound response to her question.

"Before I answer that, why are you so curious? If he's happy doing what he does maybe that's all there is to it!" Yang leaned in, she knew the answer Ruby wanted but she couldn't give the actual reason so while she thought up one she was curious why her sister wanted to know now, instead of when they were back at Signal.

"I wasn't, but Weiss asked me after our first Combat class where she fought Jaune, she gave him the advantage and she basically told me Jaune threw the fight but more than that, after she said she thought about it, he didn't just throw their match but he actively made her appear far more skilled, she said." Ruby stared at Yang not sure if she had really answered her sister question. "I figured you probably know how strong he is if Dad and Uncle Qrow are right? Are they?"

 _Really how am I supposed to answer this, Jaune's the one with lifetimes of experience lying. He's damn good at it too, thought that might just be learning which lies work after so much time. Bah, I don't want to lie to Ruby._

"They aren't wrong, Dad and Qrow, In the time Jaune spent at Signal I never once beat him in a single fight."

"Even using your Semblance you never won?" Ruby's eyes went wide in disbelief.

"Is that so hard to believe? Both your's and mine Semblances are strong in a fight, but neither are unbeatable to a person skilled enough, you remember when he was deflecting your high-speed attacks, Jaune has never had an ability like that and he works hard to make up for it." Yang smirked as she watched Ruby remember the day. "There is only so much he can do though there are some Semblances he could probably never beat, Pyrrha would be a hard fight for him, Professor Goodwitch would be another." Yang could think of a few others but they were people Ruby didn't know so couldn't say.

"Wait why couldn't he beat Pyrrha? You beat her and you just said you never managed to beat him, that doesn't make any sense!"

"It actually does, here let me explain it to you though this is a secret you can't go telling people what Pyrrha's semblance is alright!" After receiving a strong nod from her sister did she continue. "Pyrrha's Semblance is polarity or to put it more simply she can control metal, the more she can focus and concentrate the stronger her control becomes. Well imagine Jaune trying to beat someone who can control his weapons and throw him around without even touching him, doesn't seem like much of a fair fight does it?"

"No I guess it doesn't, but how did you beat Pyrrha then?" Ruby was showing visible excitement she had watched her sisters fight many times and loved when Yang would talk about it.

"My Semblance, simple as that, my power up allowed me to fight Pyrrha's control you remember that really sloppy punch towards the end of the fight that Pyrrha just stood still for, I could barely lift my arms, she was so focused on trying to control my limbs and I could barely lift them it is why in videos it looks comically bad to everyone, only Pyrrha and I and I guess you now know the real struggle that was going on." Yang smiled as Ruby seemed to process this information.

"But let us get back on topic you want to know why Jaune doesn't try in combat lessons and the answer is simple. 'Misdirection' is probably an accurate way to describe it. Jaune like's to appear weaker than he is so that if he is ever forced to fight for a serious reason if his opponent knew anything about him they would underestimate his skill!" Yang felt she accurately explained Jaune's reasoning of his refusal to show his abilities but judging from her sister's expression she was about to get another question.

"Why would he feel the need to hide his abilities from his friends? Does he not trust us?" Ruby asked with concern.

Yang continued walking struggling hard to keep a straight face. _ARGH, how is this conversation turning out this way? I cannot tell Ruby the truth and I can't think of a lie that would convince her with a question like that. How does Jaune do this all the time?_ "He trust's me and I doubt he would say he doesn't trust you either, he spent time with you and helped give you pointers about Crescent Rose and your Semblance. How long had he known you before he first helped you? Maybe Jaune just takes longer to trust people than you do Sis! I'm sure if anyone from team RWBY or JNPR asked him he would be happy to help!"

"You mean ABYN and WNRR who were those other teams you mentioned?"

"What other teams? You must have heard me wrong!" Yang closed her mouth, the slip-up had been bound to happen sooner or later and she hoped that Ruby wouldn't question her quick response. "Come on Ruby lets pick up the pace and get back to Beacon." Yang picked up her pace the relaxing day had changed in an instant and she wanted to get back to Beacon so she could avoid any further questions from her sister.

* * *

Yang entered her dorm room to find her team in various activities.

Blake looked freshly showered and was curled up on her bed reading one of her books. Judging by the noise coming from the bathroom and lack of the redhead Yang easily guessed her partner's whereabouts.

Jaune was easy to locate he was on his bed with a book in one hand and a pen furiously scribbling away. It was clearly not a textbook and she doubted Jaune was doing extra work.

Seeing as the shower was occupied Yang decided to ask Jaune a couple questions so she went over and sat on his bed beside him, with Jaune occupying the middle of the single bed she had to edge in close so to not slide off, this managed to break Jaune's concentration long enough for him to look away from his work and see who was crowding into his bed beside him.

"Yang, your back, how was your day with Ruby." Jaune was about to put his book down only to have it pulled from his finger's and kept open.

Yang lowered her voice and leaned in closer, between the noise of the shower in the other room and her whispers feeling confident enough to talk. "It was alright until Ruby started asking questions about you." Yang casually flipped through the book seeing it was a sort of Journal recording news reports that Jaune deemed important enough.

"Oh? What was she after?" Jaune tried to grab the book back but one of his arms was pinned now, Yang had appropriated it to help her stay on the bed and his other arm couldn't quite reach it.

"She and apparently Weiss know you are holding back in combat class's, I tried to cover for you but I don't think I'm quite as good at coming up with convincing lie's as you are!" Yang found nothing of interest in the book and handed it back to Jaune who in turn tucked it into the crevice between his bed and the wall.

"You think I'm good at lying? I'm terrible at it, I get caught in lie's so often that you should be ashamed to be associated with me!" Jaune wore a half serious half amused expression, he was constantly failing at lives just on being wrapped up to deep in a horrible web of lie's he had made for himself. "I actually try very hard not to lie, this life with you has probably been the most I have lied in many lifetimes, it is generally easier to just omit the whole story then build a lie." Jaune though back on the lies he had told this life and was still waiting for the moment when Ozpin will call him out on his 'Insight' or for Blake to randomly start to question certain things about his story to her.

"How do you deal with direct questions then?"

"Typically, I distract people, you don't mess up as often as I do without learning the best ways to distract people away from yourself." Jaune smiled as Yang processed this information.

"That might work for you but I don't have your experience to fall back on and I doubt people will give me time to come ask you for an answer."

"Yeah, that might be a little suspicious." Jaune laughed at the image in his mind of Yang running between him and someone else trying to have a normal conversation.

"So how did your day with Weiss go anyways?" Yang said changing the topic.

"About as well as it always does, I honestly never realized how apparently good of a student I had become over these lifetimes, having never past the first year I never learned my marks and until, this, Weiss pointed out the program to bring it up I just assumed I was middle of the pack at best. "Now that she is suspicious of my Combat skills too I really can't just tank my marks gradually or she will just think I'm letting her beat me on that too. HEY! here is a plan you should become the best student at Beacon I'll give you extra lessons and that way Weiss will focus on you and leave me alone!" Jaune gave Yang a wicked grin which she returned in kind. "Bad Idea?"

"If you want to keep breathing, yes, very bad idea!"

"Can't fault me for trying, I don't think I have ever spent so much time with Weiss in any life during Beacon, she's- well she's taxing both mentally and physically I have all new respect for your team after these weeks." Jaune had meant that to sound as a joke but he was tired of the constant attention he received from Weiss, her study sessions/leader meetings and her general 'aroundness' was beginning to tax the upper limits of his ability to stay calm.

"Has Weiss ever been like this? I'll admit I may have only had one life here but she seems different in a sense, not entirely like the Weiss I remember but also clearly the same Weiss." she had been thinking of the White haired girl infrequently and was confident that while Weiss was still clearly herself she seemed keenly different the largest difference is how she not only stood up for Velvet the two had rapidly become very good friends to the point where Velvet would be seen as much in the company of Team WNRR as her own Team CFVY.

"Honestly I can't remember, I think this is the first time she has been made leader of a Team, maybe that's all it took to make her look at things with a different perspective, or maybe she's stuck is some sort of weird time travel loop and is trying to prevent something awful from happening!" Jaune smiled at his joke and it widened when Yang saw fit to laugh at it herself.

With the joke the conversation died away and Yang nestled in closer to Jaune's side keeping his arm pinned, the entire room fell quiet gradually aside from the faint sound of a shower from the bathroom and the steady turn of a Page coming from Blake's bed.

Eventually the sound of water stopped and Pyrrha dressing in only a towel stepped into the room, initially she had been more cautious and aware of where Jaune was when she took her showers, she had quickly learned that Jaune seemed uninterested in anyone's state of dress she quickly began to ignore the fact he was in the room, that isn't to say she gave him a show either just that she didn't feel uncomfortable to be in a room with him only partially dressed.

She actually had to be more wary of Yang who would constantly try and get Jaune to pay attention and Yang was far to good with her work and would normally end up with Jaune red faced and embarrassed fleeing the room and herself embarrassed, not that Yang ever did anything really damning like stripping her of her towel it would normally be just a gesture or motion and their leader would abandon the room in haste rather than show his reddening face.

Today was different as Yang was curled into Jaune's side and seemed to be unaware of what might have been going on around her, Pyrrha quickly got dressed and feeling out of place in the room quickly got Blake's attention and the with a few hand gestures and points the Faunus and the Spartan quietly left the room.

"I wonder what the deal with them is?"Jaune had vaguely paid attention to the quick absence of his other two teammates finding it odd that the two would leave so frequently.

"I'm pretty sure they are giving us privacy." Yang smiled at the thought of her partners wandering the hall's of Beacon for the next few hours trying to find some way to occupy themselves as they assumed Jaune and Yang wanted or needed some privacy. "The entire School thinks we are a couple it's not hard to believe that even Pyrrha and Blake would assume the same." Yang looked into the other blonde's eye's and noticed a confused expression. "Wait! Didn't you know what the entire School thought about us? Oh, that's rich!" Yang laughed and in doing so upset her precarious balance keeping her on the small bed and tumbled to the floor continuing to laugh.

"HEY, that's not fair, I figured some of the school probably had that assumption but I figured people that we were around all the time wouldn't have jumped to such an outlandish conclusion!" Jaune moved to a standing position and offered Yang a hand up.

Yang stared at the offered hand and frowned. "You cannot be this naive? If anyone at Beacon thought we were dating it would be our team first." Yang waited for the gear's in Jaune's mind to spin up but after too long of a pause and no light flashing to life behind his blank expression she let out an annoyed sigh. "I guess you are this naive, Jaune you might not realize it but you dote on me and frankly I cling to you. It is not hard for people to assume we are together even if you seem oblivious to your own actions." Yang stood, taking the offered hand finally.

"I-I do? You-you, do?" Jaune was staggered by the revelation and finally his mind kicked into all the time he spent with Yang this life, the two were close to inseparable and he finally noticed it. "Why didn't you tell me sooner!?" Jaune stood in the room thunderstruck with the revelation that to everyone looking in from the outside was quite obvious to assume they were with each other.

Yang's mouth curled into a unique smile. "Why didn't I tell you?" The smile grew wider and Yang had to forcibly suppress the urge to laugh. "Jaune you are the man with the plan I assumed you realized all this."

Jaune's face fell to the floor. "Yang I'm so sorry! I'll fix this for you." Jaune's mind spun to full speed to figure out a way to make it so the entire school would not see them as a couple. So focused on his new train of thought he didn't notice Yang's face turn from one of mirth to concern.

"Fix it? Jaune why would you think I would want you to fix this?" Yang watched her fellow time traveler stop in his tracks and turn to stare at her.

"What do you mean? You have never been in a relationship at Beacon it's always like this..."Jaune watched as Yang planted a fist on her hip and cocked her head the side giving him an unreadable expression.

"Jaune that is the...well, I guess regular me for you. I have experienced more than the other me and who says I want to lose this!" Yang watched as Jaune fumbled, his mind was struggling to grasp this conversation.

"Why though?"

Yang was actually confused. "What do you mean, why?"

"Why would you want to be with me?" Jaune's voice hitched when he spoke of himself. "Why would you want to be with a failure like me..." Jaune edged away from Yang and looked toward the door of the room in a panic.

"Jaune..." Yang watched her friend with concern and sympathy, Jaune was visibly panicking at their conversation almost to the point where he looked like he might start hyperventilating. "You really see yourself that way, don't you? As a failure, someone not worthy to be happy yourself?" She took a step towards him and winced as he took a step back.

"You are not a failure Jaune, I see what you put yourself through every life before even attending Beacon, you do this time after time after time, you are forever alone and unsuccessful but, YOU, are not a failure." Yang took another step forward and was bolstered when Jaune did not retreat this time.

"You're wrong... I have failed, I have given up, back on Patch you weren't wrong to be angry at me that day, I gave up Yang, a long time ago I lived my entire life, I stood by and watched the world burn, Salem won completely, after she had won so completely and was so powerful I thought I saw my chance to end everything, I travelled to her, in hopes she was strong enough to end my Semblance to end my existence. She might have been, I will never know, my frail and decrepit body did not survive the encounter, she mocked me as I died, to weak to even beg for her to end my existence completely." Jaune watched Yang as she listened to his story, he had expected her face to be filled with revulsion or hatred but the only look was one of deepest sympathy.

"NO!, I DON'T DESERVE SYMPATHY! Don't you see, I gave up, I wanted to forfeit any chance for anyone to have a happy life. I couldn't even do that right!" Jaune sagged against a desk his anger at himself sapping his strength. "I-I tried so hard to end it after that, I'm not even sure how many times I killed myself, I'm not sure what eventually stopped me either."

"It doesn't matter that you gave up, it matter's that you started to try again!" Yang watched as Jaune seemed physically wounded by her words, wincing with almost visible pain. "In my life alone you have sacrificed everything, you could have abandoned it at any time, but you didn't even when we had clearly lost, you stayed for me, from your own stories you do that in every life as long as one of us lives, so do you." She gradually crossed the room until she was standing inches from her friend. "You may think you have failed to world, you may think you failed yourself, but I can confidently tell you-you have not failed your friends!" Yang watched as Jaune raised his head and looked into his eyes, they were tired but in the depths, there was a flicker of something deeper.

"Why do you have so much faith in me?" Jaune asked his mind could not understand how Yang was still standing up for him.

"I have faith in you because someone need's too, I never realized until this moment, but everything you do is an act, you go through the motions of a life you have lived countless times, trying to improve everyone else's life at your own expense and frankly I'm not going to let you do that!" Yang's exhaled hard as she finished speaking waiting for Jaune's response.

The response was unsettling as Jaune started to laugh. "What did I do to deserve you, anyone else would have gone about this a different way that I could have handled but not you, your blunt and direct and honestly I cannot think of a better person to beat some sense into my stupid head." Jaune stood tall again. "I don't know what I can do for you though Yang, I have done this for so long I'm not sure how I can make a change that would seem sincere to you, I already try my hardest to improve every time and I won't jeopardize anyone's life for my own enjoyment."

Jaune looked Yang dead in the eye wanting her to understand that and was shocked when instead of a staredown with the fiery blonde instead he felt a pressure of his lips meeting hers as she had stepped in as he had spoke, so shocked was he that he instinctively tried to step back from the kiss but forgot the desk was still behind him and was trapped.

Yang finally pulled back from the kiss and smiled at the shock and bewilderment on the fellow blondes face.

"I wouldn't expect you to but I will make sure you genuinely enjoy life again." Yang smiled as she moved for another kiss her eye's dancing with an amused light as the recipent looked baffled!

* * *

 **Woo long gap between updates... sorry... not sorry!  
**

 **First the explanation behind that, and well the short answer is Family.**

 **The long answer is Uncle, one of my sisters was pregnant and I had work holidays that needed to be used, she asked me to stay with her for a week while her husband was working and couldn't be home, I love my sister and my brother in law and my two nephews and was more than happy to accept but it killed any chance for writing at least with this chapter, wrong environment and mindset for me to write this so I tabled it and worked more on my more 4th wall breaking DnD RWBY story as the kids made focusing and writing comedy fluid for a few days, I had thought I was going to have this chapter out on Sunday but as I was preparing to leave, as my Brother-in-law had finished a work week from hell my sister decided she was done being pregnant and was rushed off to give birth or not, small girl not the greatest hips for childbearing so C-section #2, anyways I stuck around for another couple days watching my nephews until mom and dad got home with my first ever Niece.**

 **I have been and Uncle NINE times now and only now am I getting a Niece to spoil!**

 **Welcome to the world Rose Simone Hainsworth Elmore!**

* * *

 **So fun chapter to plan for but to write it was hard, I wanted to show that Yang wasn't forgetting her life while being tied up with the time travel nonsense and I also wanted people to realize that Jaune isn't perfect either.**

 **Yang's day with Ruby helped to tell the first half and it was actually fun to write.**

 **Breaking Jaune's image was harder for me to write, I knew early on that Jaune had a pretty rough go of it, every life ended in failure and even showed you his lowest point, the point when he broke, he started try again when he realized there was no escape for him, he believes that even if he succeeds when he eventually expires from old age he would just be forced to live this life again, he goes through the motions he acts the way he remembers how he should act but it is just a giant facade one that he wasn't even aware he was putting on.**

 **If anyone is concerned that this will turn Jaune into a more mopey or wounded character don't worry, he has been this way so long he doesn't even realize he was doing it and he is incapable of changing it.**

 **Alright, what else... what else...**

 **Oh hey did you see me try and write a kiss? God's how I cringed the entire time, apparently as a 30 year old man I still think like a child about writing about something I have experienced and man its a good thing I don't write smut cause those few sentences made me cringe every time I tried to write them out, I'm not sure the exact amount of times I erased it and changed it but it is an unpleasantly high number.**

 **Okay, next Chapter is Forever Fall, as of posting this I have not started writing it, I have the story planned out but with the extra days at my sister's, I fell behind on a project I'm actually paid for so the Forever Fall update might be a slow update also.**

 **Anyways as always let me know what you think!**


	19. Chapter 19

Jaune was dazed, he wasn't entirely sure what had happened, well, that's not true he knew what had happened but he was not entirely sure how or why.

His mind reeled still from the reaction Yang had to his confession, instead of revulsion and hatred, she showed sympathy, something he never expected to receive from his lowest point. Even days later he was still confused about how the whole conversation had seemingly turned from a very simple subject to well this.

Jaune looked over his team as everyone was preparing their gear for the trip to Forever Fall, the three female members of his team were doing one last check on their gear.

Yang was the first to finish and made to stand near him with her new ever present grin firmly fixed on her face.

"You know you could stop looking confused it's been almost a week, not everything needs to make sense to your mind Jaune, I think you might enjoy life a little more if you thought a little less."

The direct attention roused Jaune mind from his thoughts. "I can't help it, I spent so long thinking if anyone knew about what I tried to do I would be hated and while I'm glad you proved that wrong in probably the greatest way ever." Jaune watched through the corner of his eye as Yang very faintly blushed.

"You say that like we went farther than making out, though if Ruby hadn't interrupted us I might have pushed for more!"

Now it was Yang's turn to watch Jaune's face go red but instead of a faint trace, his face went a bright red.

"Yes, well, as much as that might have been great I have noticed you have not tried to go that far again since then."

"I considered it, especially with the memories I have of us together from before, but I thought maybe I should give you time to process and boy was that a mistake, all I ever see you doing when left alone is stare off into space now! What one make-out session with a girl who's genuinely into you and not looking for emotional comfort and your brain shuts off?" Yang grinned as Jaune seemed to slump forward in defeat as her words struck with accuracy.

"You could say that, you know for as long as I have lived I have never had a real relationship, I don't even count whatever Pyrrha and I had during my first life, not anymore anyways. If you hadn't been sent back with me, I doubt I would ever have been able to do anything like this and it not feel like I was just picking someone and tricking them into thinking I was someone they wanted to be with!" Jaune wanted to say more but cut the conversation off as Pyrrha and Blake finished with their gear and were now moving towards Yang and himself.

"Got everything?"

"Yes though I'm not sure why you insisted we bring so much more than the other teams." Blake fidgeted as she re-adjusted Gambol Shroud.

"I figured at least one team should be prepared if the Grimm presence in the forest is more than what the teachers are expecting, never hurts to err on the side of caution right?" Jaune smiled, he knew Forever Fall was normally a walk in the park but he had seen how wrong it could go as well and with how inconsistent this life was being he figured not to take any serious risks.

"I think Jaune is right, most other teams aside from us are very light on Dust and ammunition, it would be prudent to have at least one team prepared in case an emergency arises." Pyrrha spoke as she sided with Jaune and left the conversation as three against one against the Faunus.

"Well, when you put it like guess it makes sense." Blake sighed as she hefted her bag, it wasn't heavy, not by any means it was more of an inconvenience as she always traveled light.

"Well since I'm missing a bag and Blake seems to be the one least on board with my decision how bout I carry your bag?" Jaune asked his arm outstretched and aside from Blake sending a quick glance at Yang readily handed her bag off, though before Jaune could pull his arm back Yang bag was added and judging by the noise coming from behind him Yang was trying to wrestle the third bag from Pyrrha to make Jaune carry that as well.

"Pyrrha, just hand over the bag before Yang takes this too far."

"I'm quite capable of carrying my own bag." the Spartan said as she held the bag above her head which only prompted Yang to try and climb her partner to reach it.

"Capable, yes, but I'm fairly certain you realize by now Yang won't give this up." Jaune smiled and was pleased to see Blake even smiling at the antic's of her teammates.

"Okay - ouch - hey I give you can have the bag just stop trying to climb me!" Pyrrha who was now fully supporting Yang as the Blonde had managed to find purchase on Pyrrha's armor and had started to climb towards the arm that held the bag. Pyrrha let the bag drop and Yang quickly snatched it before tossing it to Jaune.

"There now that that is settled how about we be on our way."

Jaune watched his team file out of the locker room and once he found a comfortable way to carry the three bags he quickly followed after them.

* * *

Smiling, Jaune stepped off the bullhead and scanned Forever Fall.

 _Same spot every time, now I just need to fill four bottles and Team ABYN will be done in record time and we can relax while everyone else takes their time._

Patiently, Jaune waited for Glynda to give out final instructions and once she was finished he quickly turned to capitalize on a few nearby trees that would easily fill his team's requirement.

Pulling out his tapping tool he deftly made the notch in the bark he needed to get the sap flowing and positioned his first jar underneath and mentally counted time pass. After about a minute he move the initial jar away from the siphon and placed the second underneath, it was only then did he notice as he move to screw the lid on the first jar it was curiously light, he brought it up to eye level and sure enough there was barely a centimetre of sap in the bottom of the jar.

 _That's not right, did I make the notch wrong, it wouldn't be the first time I've been complacent about it._

Inspecting the notch he had made Jaune quickly ruled that out as the problem, the notch was near perfect. Looking at his second jar he knew the tree was already spent as the second jar only had a few pitiful drops on the bottom.

 _This is the right tree?_ Quickly glancing to where the bullheads were and where he was standing to make certain he had used his usual tree. _Definitely the right tree..._

Quickly working he pulled the siphon from the tree scrapped the tool clean and quickly patched the notch he had made in the tree. During this process he noticed another notch that he hadn't seen before, that was clearly made by a tool but whoever had tapped the tree hadn't been concerned about repairing the damage, looking past this tree Jaune stared intently at all the trees nearby and all had clear indications that they had been tapped recently, not less than a few days .

"I don't think we will have much luck here, most these trees have been tapped recently let's move farther into the brush!" Jaune motioned towards the nearby trees pointing out the relatively obvious damage the tree's had suffered recently.

 _Okay, what if anything does this mean? The saps useful for only two things as far as I know. It's a fairly profitable foodstuff as long as you can sell it outside Vale, inside Vale it is too common to be really valuable, shipping it to other kingdoms is expensive, as it needs refrigeration of else it will spoil and judging by how many trees I've noticed since we started walking we are talking about hundreds in not thousands of liters of the stuff harvested recently._

Jaune stopped periodically allowing Blake and Pyrrha chances to harvest some sap, he made sure to go through the motions himself and was glad to see Yang was also making sure to keep up the act while sending him periodic glances, her lilac eyes housing many questions that would have to go unanswered for the time being, not that he had and actual answer for her at the moment.

After several more unsuccessful attempts and growing frustration among the group they moved on hunting for new trees again.

 _The other use is Grimm bait, Beowulf's and Ursa's love the stuff particularly but any Grimm that catch's a whiff of the stuff is drawn to the source, it's one of the reasons it's not commonly collected unless you have a large workforce to do so like Beacon does with its students, it helps that we can take care of ourselves in case Grimm decide to attack._

As Jaune's mind wanders off on the subject of the sap his group stops multiple times to attempt collection again meeting limited success, but at least slowly creeping toward's their desired goal of four completely filled jars.

Pulling out his Scroll Jaune stares at the time and frowns.

 _This task normally only takes a couple hours and now we have been out here for almost four and if we combine all our bottles we might have two passably full ones to turn in... this isn't right, too many trees have been tapped and it's too thorough this is the work of a large organized force... SHIT!_

Jaune jerked to a stop and quickly scanned the ground looking for any sign the would hopefully prove him wrong, his shoulders slumped almost instantly as he started to pay attention to the ground beyond just where we has walking so he wouldn't trip.

In every direction, heavy identical boot mark's scored the ground, the grass was clearly healing from the onslaught of so much traffic but it still had clear marks dotted everywhere.

Jaune was familiar with this boot print it was part of a uniform he was quite familiar with but also one that should not be here in Forever Fall, it should be all over Vale alongside Roman Torchwick as he did his dust robberies, but that wasn't the case either, Roman was nowhere to be found in Vale and neither was the White Fang which was now clearly in the forest.

 _This is not good, I can pretty much rule out the Fang using this stuff as a foodstuff. They have to be gathering this stuff for an attack, something much earlier than Mountain Glenn. How long does this stuff last outside of a tree without refrigeration? A couple weeks a month tops!_

A faint explosion in the distance pulls Jaune from his thoughts.

"Blake get up high see if you can see where that came from!" Jaune looked to the nimble Faunus and was happy to see that before he had even finished his order she was already vanishing up a tree and a few second later gracefully dropped down from the branch's looking concerned.

"The trees are too thick but it came from back where the Bullheads had landed and there is a lot of smoke!" After Blake finished her quick report the group fell to an uneasy silence which let another noise filter through the trees.

"Fighting! Blake, how far away do you think we are?"

"A mile or so."

"Shit! Everyone we are heading back, we don't know what the other's are fighting or if we will be in the line of fire so go carefully!" Jaune pulled his weapon and cut into the brush heading back to the Bullheads.

* * *

"Geez, Ren, your normally way better at this" Nora looked at her best friend and partner but not 'partner, partner' as the calm young man methodically plugged another tree and moved along to the next.

"I have already told you, Nora, these trees have been tapped recently and I doubt there will be enough for you to indulge yourself." Ren smiled at Nora's exaggerated expression of disbelief at his accusation.

"Why would every tree have been tapped already though? Does Vale harvest these tree's regularly?" Weiss stood and looked at her jar in frustration, among her entire team she had collected the least and was quickly losing any semblance of patience she had with this task that she has described as menial several times and unbefitting of a huntress many more times than that in the hours they had been out here so far to anyone who would listen.

Ruby, Nora and Ren did not have an answer to that, likely the only person who might was Professor Goodwitch but she was back by the Bullheads and no one wanted to waste time heading back to ask a seemingly pointless question.

In her frustration, Weiss pulled out her Scroll to find out how much time had been wasted on such a stupid pointless task.

"FOUR HOURS! We have been out here for four hours and not a one of has a completely filled Jar, this has got to be some kind of cruel test by the teachers at Beacon. Why if I..." Weiss stopped speaking as a nearby explosion cut her off.

Team WNRR and the other nearby students turned to look in the direction of the explosion it had come from the direction of the Bullheads.

The group's of in training huntsmen exploded into random action's some teams collapsed to their leader and waited for orders others ran recklessly to the Bullheads to offer assistance or assess the damage but the majority of the students stood still locked in a feeling of confusion and fear.

Slowly from deep in the tree line a large host of White masked figures slowly became visible.

Leading them was a Masked man with a shock of red hair and another larger masked man hefting a mechanical sword that was larger than most people.

"I see you were right, that is the Schnee Heiress." The red haired man calmly said to the man leading the group.

The large man carrying the mechanical sword smiled viciously and strode forward bringing her weapon forward menacingly.

* * *

Anger coursed through his entire being, as it had for many weeks, first with Blake's betrayal and then with being forced to submit to the whims of this 'Cinder Fall', Adam cursed himself for the thousandth time for not killing the bitch when she had first come for his help, if he had when she was apparently weak and attempted to coerce him into selling out his beliefs for a some Lien this whole situation would have been avoided.

He still clearly remembered her second appearance she had torn through his camp in seconds not even bothering to kill his fleeing troops instead she made it clear that no one in the camp was even a threat to her not even himself or his more capable subordinates.

Reluctantly he had sheathed his blade without even attacking once, deep down he felt doing so would just be wasting his life and judging from the time between then and now he was fairly certain he had made the right choice and that just infuriated him further.

The White Fang or more specifically himself worked for this 'Human' now and through him, his Faunus brethren were little more than slaves to Cinders whims.

Initially he had planned to abandon Vale completely, even forsake his Beloved to save his followers from Cinders warped mind and powers, he had sent out small parties early on to hunt for supplies, none of these came back,he tried this for many days until he finally led a squad himself and barely made it back alive.

Grimm appeared at every turn in staggering numbers, Beowulfs and Ursa in frightening numbers would attack anyone trying to leave Forever Fall on foot. At first, he had tried to push past the Grimm, normal Beowulf and Ursa were fodder for him but numbers evened the playing field and after a long fight with which he bore new scars from he was forced to flee and realizing the only hope for his people was to follow Cinders demands.

Collect Sap and capture Alpha level Grimm, the sap was easy and in days they had cleared a vast portion of the forest and Cinder had come to collect it with her two partners from her first trip and this time with a couple extra's a small female with mismatched eyes and hair and a for lack of a better word 'Creepy' demeanor and a criminal Adam recognized as Roman Torchwick.

They didn't stay long Adam's men loaded the sap onto the Bullheads they had brought and the were gone in a matter of minutes, he had only had a few minutes to talk to Cinder and the answers had left him frustrated but at least allowed him to piece together a small portion of Cinders plan and with that knowledge he understood Cinders, at least short term goal.

Cinder was planning to use the Sap to lead the large mass of Grimm she had gathered around the exits to Forever Fall to lead them closer to the walls of Vale, The mindless brutes had no real hope of breaching the wall even with the numbers Cinder had gathered but that's where the Alpha Grimm he was tasked with capturing came in.

Alpha Grimm had a type of leadership effect on the lesser Grimm around them and the more you had in close proximity the more coordinated the Grimm would become.

Adam figured that the force of Grimm keeping him and his White Fang contained were lacking any Alpha Grimm and were in some way being manipulated to Cinder's whims Adam wasn't exactly sure how she was achieving this but it mattered little at the moment, Cinder could control the regular Grimm to some level but made it obvious to him she would not be there for her own attack which meant this was either a distraction or just a small conflict to weaken Vale gradually, this would have made him happy but Cinder had not mentioned anything about what he was to do after this attack which might mean she was either done with him or didn't expect him to even survive.

"How many Alpha Grimm are we up to?" Adam looked up from his table he hadn't been looking at anything in particular instead he was just attempting to look busy for his lieutenants.

"At last count, we have fifteen and a solid lead on another but so far it's den remains hidden to us."

"Casually count?"

"Surprisingly low compared to the original three we captured, the troops have learned through practice on how to properly contain the beasts with minimal risk as long as one our more powerful fighters deal with the Alpha's follower's in advance."

"You didn't answer my question!" Adam turned to the smaller Faunus and the growled his ill temper showing through the limited facade he was bothering to put up.

"Sorry, sir, total casualty count is forty-seven dead, sixty three seriously wounded less than a dozen expected to make a recovery and another one hundred twenty-one with mild injuries and expected to make full recoveries!" The man snapped as he delivered the full report though keeping the fact that many with light injuries were auraless fighters with broken bones that would take months to heal.

 _Over half my force either dead or incapacitated for fifteen pathetic Alpha Grimm, not even of the rarer more formidable breeds of Grimm these are just Beowulf, Ursa, and a solitary Boarbatusk Alpha._

Adam snapped out of his revery as an out of breath scout entered his tent, steeling himself for bad news he nodded for the scout to give his report.

"Three Bullheads marked with Beacon insignia have landed in the forest an hours hard run north of us. Ships contained in training huntsmen and huntress's with only a single visable Huntress Escort who we have identified as Glynda Goodwitch."

 _This could be our means of escape, Cinder can stop us from leaving on foot but if we could steal even one of those bullheads I could have my entire force out of this forsaken forest by tonight!_

"Recall every Faunus that we can and grab your gear we are going to take a Bullhead!" Before Adam even finished speaking his tent had become a flurry of activity as maps were pulled and quick discussions on contingencies were sorted out, Adam smiled outwardly but on the inside he was concerned he knew how formidable huntsmen were and even trainees at their earliest stages could decimate the majority of his troops as they lacked both aura and training the only advantage they had was numbers isolate even the most powerful of huntsmen and numbers eventually win. Three full Bullhead's meant probably forty trained fighters with Aura, three pilots that likely had an aura and defensive training and then there was the real threat a true Huntsman looking over everyone.

Adam was confident in his abilities, most of the time, but as skilled as he was, he felt certain he could not match one as powerful as Glynda Goodwitch but he had no choice and steeled himself for a fight he was confident would not end well for himself but it was better than throwing his life away at Cinders whim.

/

Time passed quickly and he and his troops were closing in on the location of the Bullheads, so far his scouts had not been spotted and brought him constant information of the layout of their target and where the trainee huntsmen were.

Another scout appeared in the distance this one was more out of breath and returning from a different direction than the others, Adam made a motion to stop his group and waited for this new scout's report not wanting to ignore potential information.

"Schnee..." The scout said as soon as he was close enough struggling to catch his breath. "Schnee Heiress... the direction I came from plus maybe twenty students." The scout gasped between breaths and nodded thankfully as he was handed a waterskin.

The eyes of his lieutenants turned to him at once, each one knew the value of such a target as a hostage, beyond leverage of a bargaining chip for a Bullhead it would be of great use against Atlas and the Schnee Dust Company.

"Change of plan's, you lead us back to where you saw the Schnee and students." Adam quickly split his troops sending the majority off to surround the bullhead's while he took his more capable fighters to hunt down the Schnee.

Watching half his force continue off in another direction Adam watched the scout finish his quick drink and with his breath coming back to him lead them back the way he had come from.

As the scout slowed indicating they were close to their target, an explosion shattered the silence he had one guess what it was which made capturing the Schnee heiress and some students far more important though he did pause for an instant to wonder what happened at the bullheads before entering the clearing.

* * *

"Ozpin, I'm bringing the students back, this trip has taken too long and I am beginning to get a bad feeling!" Glynda spoke through the screen on the Bullheads communication system.

"Agreed, I will have a few Huntsmen sent out immediately to investigate, gather your students and return immediately." Ozpin spoke through the com and before he blipped out of existence Glynda saw a familiar Scroll appear in Ozpins hand, the sight of it was reassuring.

"I'm sorry to ask this of you but could you please go start to gather the students?" Glynda asked the pilot of the ship she was on and was pleased to see the young women immediately set to her task, disappearing into the brush in a moment.

Glynda turned to approach the other two ships to inform the pilots to get ready for departure when gunfire came from the tree line, followed by the female pilot retreating into the clearing bleeding heavily from her arm.

Behind her, a dozen forms appeared wearing the distinctive garb of the White Fang and looking to continue the assault on the woman who by the fact that she was bleeding had already lost considerable amounts of her aura.

Instantly Glynda stopped the attackers buffeting them with a telekinetic push that knocked them from their feet while simultaneously pulling their weapons away from them.

"Pilots! Get in the air we are under attack!" A calm masked imposed itself over her already stern features as she prepared to defend the ship's, her students, and herself as more White Fang appeared from every direction and began bombarding any target they could. She didn't struggle much her Semblance made dealing with the opponents trivial but she learned long ago to not take risks and as the first two bullheads roared to life and began to life off she turned to defend the third which had the wounded pilot.

Time passed painfully slow and Glynda was growing concerned that the third pilot was too wounded to get her craft off the ground and she herself was beginning to feel the pressure of so many automatic weapons leveled at her at once. Finally, the craft roared to life and lifted from the ground Glynda mentally sighed and turned her attention from the craft into dealing with her attackers before she was overwhelmed by numbers alone as more and more guns were turned her direction.

* * *

Pain was clouding her mind, the dust round that had torn through her arm severed something important and the limb hung limply at her side bleeding heavily, she toggled the switches and hit the ignition her mind screaming the a haze of pain that she was taking to long, that she should have been in the air already, another quieter part of her mind was making her feel tired.

Shaking her head to clear the pain away she smiled as it seemed to work the pain faded and she began to feel relaxed, she pushed the throttle and felt the lurch as her ship took to the air, her mind laughed at the feeling of floating she was experiencing and somewhere deeper in her subconscious a part she couldn't hear anymore screamed to be heard that she was about to crash.

 _Huh, Why is Ms. Goodwitch in the sky?_

An explosion shattered her reality ending her life.

* * *

 **Wow so that was a gap in time!**

 **Not much going on aside from next to no time for writing these past couple weeks hopefully that changes going forward.**

 **Anyways as always let me know what you think!**


	20. Chapter 20

The relaxing day had devolved into first a frustrating test of her patience, and now a fight for her very life.

Weiss wielded her blade with no small degree of skill, and if her opponents had been mindless Grimm she along with her Team would have had no problem dealing with the numbers they faced.

Grimm were not her enemy today, no today her enemy was her father's legacy and what it meant for every member of the Schnee family.

White Fang had poured from the tree's after an explosion in the distance, she found herself to be the primary target of two of what she assumed were the White Fang's better fighters potentially leaders.

A large man who used a mechanical blade that threatened to break apart any weapon it connected with. Weiss had watched the weapon do much worse to a fellow student who got in the man's path, she didn't know the young man's name but his blood now stained her clothing.

Her other attacker was a man of smaller build in comparison to other attacker but by no means a small man himself, his defining feature was his red hair and odd fighting style.

The few attacks the man had done were devastating, Team CRDL had attempted and succeeded to distract the fighter when he had cornered Team WNRR, her team escaped momentarily with the distraction but Team CRDL had paid the price. She didn't see the outcome of the fight but the Red haired man was quickly in pursuit again, Weiss hoped for the best but with her cloth's as a clear reminder she anticipated that Team CRDL might no longer be with them.

"Keep retreating! Don't attack the one with red hair he seems to be using the power of our attack's against us!" Weiss shouted to her team and anyone near enough hoping anyone who heard her warning would head the advice.

The man never dodged an attack instead he would put himself at great risk to deflect an attack, she had noticed after repeated attempts the man's blade grew brighter with every attack if took but after the man wielding it attacked it would lose its luster and he would revert to absorbing attacks.

"Weiss they are pushing us away from the other team, I think they are trying to isolate us!" Ruby flitted through the tree's in a flash of rose petals, as she harassed the much larger man with quick attacks, the damage she was inflicting was superfluous at best but it did go a long way in keeping one of the two attackers from being able to bring his weapon to into the mix against herself and the other members of Team WNRR as they tried to find a way to deal with the other attacker.

Weiss hadn't been paying much attention to their location mostly attempting to make sure they didn't get cornered again but now that her attention was drawn to the fact it was clear that they were being slowly pushed farther from the other students.

"Nora, how is Ren holding up?" Weiss shifted her attention to the other half of her team. Ren had been struck hard early in the fight by the large man, nothing serious but he was likely suffering from the blow as Weiss watched in concern as the man shook his head again and again.

With a quick glance to Weiss, the look of fear and concern spoke volumes. "He's keeping up for now." Nora turned and continued to stand between Ren and their pursuers.

 _I can't let us get pushed any farther away from possible support but we also can't engage these two in a full on fight. If it was just the large man we could overwhelm him... probably, but I doubt we could beat the red haired man four on one at all._

Reaching into her pouch Weiss fished around for another crystal and found the pouch to be empty. _What, no I haven't used that much have I?_ She fished the contents of her bag again and when she came up empty handed again she knew what remained in her weapon was that last of her Dust.

"Running out of options 'Little Demon' who will the Schnee sacrifice first to buy herself a little more time." Weiss jumped at the words that had come from the red haired man.

"I won't sacrificed anyone! Just leave us alone, we haven't done anything to you!" Weiss shrank in fear as the red head's mouth split into a mirthless grin.

"I'm sure many of these aspiring huntsmen haven't, yet, but you, you are guilty by name alone!"

Weiss's eyes flashed around her in an instant trying to come up with any plan and with a quick look at Nora, Ren, and Ruby she knew what needed to be done.

"Nora, take Ren and back up Ruby I have a plan to deal with the smug redhead!"

"Um, are you sure Weiss?" Nora gave her leader a look of concern.

"Yes, now go!"

Watching her teammates turn to engage the larger Faunus she smiled with pride as the man who was previously only slightly impeded by Ruby was now stopped in his tracks and was needing to focus on defense with three dedicated attackers taking turned flanking and attacking him.

Pulling her attention away Weiss prepared a Glyph that Winter had taught her. Winter considered the Glyph useless and a failure as it was impossible to use in normal combat, but Weiss had studied her foe and with his odd repetative style of attacking she was going to attempt to use Winters failure.

* * *

The sounds of fighting separated as Team ABYN moved closer to the noise, Jaune wanted nothing more to sprint forward and defend his classmates but he learned long ago that caution prevailed more often than not, and doubly so with situations, he knew nothing about. Yang had managed to get close enough on their hurried trek back that he had passed along who was likely attacking the others, he didn't like the murderous expression that briefly appeared on Yangs face before being replaced by a too calm mask.

Minutes passed as the four moved closer to the sounds of the largest sounding fight when amongst their group came a gasp. Three sets of eyes turned to Pyrrha as she stared into the brush before she turned away her face losing all color.

Jaune moved to find out what Pyrrha had seen and his gut clenched at the sight. In the undergrowth lay a fellow student, Jaune reached down and checked the girl for any indication she may be alive but knew with the way her eyes stared blankly into the sky it was a wasted gesture.

He knew from experience how aura less White Fang grunts dealt with huntsmen in combat. They open fire in large numbers from as far away as possible, eventually, the sustained fire would exhaust their targets aura and then they would continue firing until the target was dead. Simple straightforward and deadly effective, this girl had the unfortunate circumstant of losing aura while trying to flee, she had managed to escape but the damage was done and she had bled to death while hiding.

Jaune sent a concerned glance at the three members of his team, first Yang who was struggling to maintain her mask of calm and Jaune didn't blame her he was struggling with it himself but he forced himself to keep his anger in check.

Next, he looked to Pyrrha glad to see she had recovered quickly from the surprise of stumbling across a dead classmate, Jaune needed her focused and ready to fight, her Semblance would strip the attackers of their weapons leaving the vast majority of them helpless.

Finally, he looked at Blake and wondered exactly what she was thinking, her face was pale and jaw clenched shut but what concerned Jaune the most was the dead expression behind her eyes.

"Come on our friends need our help! Pyrrha, anyone who's not a student take away their weapon's, Yang any weapon Pyrrha takes your breaking keep doing that until everyone is disarmed! Blake, I want you to head to where the Bullheads were landed find out the cause of that explosion, I'll try and see what I can do about rounding up the others!" Jaune knew this plan had no small amount of holes but between Yang and Blake, he wasn't sure he wanted either of them finding Adam.

 _Blake would be too unpredictable, she might convince Adam to stop in exchange for her returning to his side and while I doubt that would last long it might also cost Blake her life. Yang, on the other hand, I know exactly what she would do, it's the same thing I did in my early lives when I became skilled enough, she would kill Adam and while that wouldn't be a loss I can't trust her to keep her emotions in check to take part in this fight._

Team ABYN split in three directions Pyrrha and a very angry looking Yang headed to the sound of the largest fight, Blake to the landing site and once both groups were out of his line of sight Jaune turned to another direction, his eyes had caught sight of some familiar battle damage for his many fights through his lives. Jaune mentally reminded himself of how to combat the man's Semblance and crashed through the trees in the direction he knew he would find Adam Taurus.

* * *

Pyrrha and Yang crashed through the trees at a madman's pace, Yang's anger fueling her to push harder and faster now that Jaune wasn't around to curb her temper. So fast was Yang that Pyrrha had to push herself to keep pace with her partner.

The two broke into a clearing that was littered with bodies, but also had a large group of White Fang troops firing indiscriminately at their classmates who were hiding behind any cover they could find and when the could attempting to return fire.

The gunfire stopped all at once, Pyrrha had forcibly pulled anything metallic towards herself and Yang not wasting time to differentiate her classmates weapons from the White Fangs, the weapons landed in a heap in front of herself and Yang the force she had pulled them and their collision with the ground went a long way in destroying the cheaper mass produced weapons the White Fang used, any huntsman weapon in the pile would be likely undamaged.

The lull in gunfire was broken by a scream of anger from Yang as she charged into the confused White Fang who without weapon's and seeing a very angry huntress bearing rushing towards them attempted to flee but with a few exceptions from those closest to the tree line very few escaped.

Yang's mind warred with itself as she attacked the White Fang, the aspect that currently controlled her actions struck with anger and frustration the bodies of her classmates fueled her into striking as hard as she could, with every punch she felt bones crack and break as no aura was present to impede her strikes.

The other portion of her mind was playing a more subtle game, it knew it had no chance to take control of Yang's berserker anger so it instead dictated in her mind where she would strike, this portion of her mind was keenly aware of the knowledge that people's opinions of her would be irrevocably altered if they discovered she had no compunction about killing, the biggest concerns on that matter where her sister and Blake.

Yang broke bones and incapacitated numerous White Fang grunts but none would die at least not today even for how much they might deserve death.

Once the general area was clear of threats Yang returned to where Pyrrha was, the Spartan was directing the other students having them search for anyone still alive as well as listening to reports of the fight.

"Team WNRR and CRDL? I see at least a couple members of every team here except for those two!" Yang did a quick double and triple check trying to find her sister team and noticed belatedly Cardin's team was also missing.

A classmate approached after hearing of the two teams the boy was small in statue and lacked a lot of confidence but made up for this by his extreme loyalty to his friends, he carried an odd but popular weapon at his side a collapsable axe that could fire large explosive shells in multiple directions.

"Team WNRR was attacked by the stronger fighters, I think they were focusing on Weiss, Cardin and his team weren't with the group when we were attacked I don't know where they are!" Syrus Truesdale spoke hastily but clearly.

Yang's stomach twisted she knew only a couple White Fang Faunus that could pose a real to a team of huntsmen and the first one that came to mind was Adam. "Which way did you see my sister go!?" Yang's eyes followed the direction Syrus pointed and immediately picked up signs of where Adam would have struck with his sword and Semblance, it was almost exactly the direction they had arrived from to support their classmates, the direction Jaune had moved to take when he thought he was no longer able to be observed.

 _He knew and he still sent me away! Why?_ Yang's anger flared and with it her Semblance that she controlled now ignited on its own for the first time in a very long time. The air around Yang became painful to breathe and Pyrrha and Syrus both took several steps back. "I'm going to find my sister!" She didn't wait for a response she was moving before she even finished speaking, from behind her she heard another person begin to chase after her, she knew it would be Pyrrha.

* * *

Blake moved through the trees unhindered her route from where they had split led her farther from the fighting and as she reached her destination the sound's of gunfire all but ceased, small pockets of noise she still be picked up but the loudest concentration stopped all at once.

Reaching the edge clearing, she discovered the source of the explosion from earlier, one of the Bullheads had crashed and its Dust engine had ignited and exploded, strewn around the wreckage Blake saw the familiar uniform of the White Fang, only a half dozen or so stood in one group off to the side of the crashed Bullhead having a quiet conversation.

From where she stood as well as the mask's obscuring their faces she had no idea to the identity of these Faunus but she didn't have to guess that they were part of Adam's force's, the uniform was a pretty distinct give away, all White Fang groups had a formalized uniform but different groups over time made small subtle changes and Adam's group was probably one of the more subtle changes from most groups that are attempting to be more intimidating, Adam's group wore almost unremarkable uniforms aside from the fact that they are made from sturdier materials to survive the rigors of sometimes months of being in the wilderness.

Thankful that while this was Adam's group that he wasn't present which meant one of those six might recognize her and give her some answers, quickly removing the ribbon covering her ears she confidently walked from her hiding spot not bothering to move silently instead approaching the group with the confidence of one comfortable in their ability.

As one the group turned to her and raised their weapons only after a moment and a quiet signal from one in the front were their weapons lowered again.

From deep in the hood of the lead, Faunus Blake heard a rasping voice that she detested and almost as if on cue a rat tail uncoiled from the man's waste. "Blake, Where have you been? It has been over a month since anyone has seen or heard from you."

Her ears flattened at the voice. out of all Adam's lieutenants this was the only one that managed to elicit this reaction, most people assumed that it was their heritage that put them at odds a Rat and Cat Faunus loathing each other seemed natural even to other Faunus. She couldn't care less about the others animal traits to her she detested him on his repulsive personality and behavior.

"I have been away taking care of myself and training." She knew it was a flimsy answer, if Adam had said anything about their last mission before she left it would mean little, what, if anything she said.

"Training and taking care of yourself..." the two exchanged a cold glance. "...well regardless you picked a great time to return. Adam has tasked us to capture a Bullhead, unfortunately, this one is out of commission but two others keep circling around to check on the area. Next time they pass by I think we might have an incentive to make one of them land."

For the first time, Blake noticed a body lying inside the circle the others made, with a glance down she discovered the bodies identity instantly and understood why he was so confident as to why a Bullhead would land.

Glynda Goodwitch was prone on the ground her chest rising and falling irregularly like it was difficult to breath, her clothing was torn and burned and she had a mean looking gash on her head that had bled into her hair staining half her skull red but she was clearly alive, though for how long that would last she wasn't certain, none of the White Fang had made even the slightest gesture to staunch the head wound and judging from the blood trail and drag marks they had pulled her from whatever debris she was under by a single leg.

One of the few conditions Ozpin had placed upon her before admitting her to Beacon was the right to inform the staff of not only her heritage but also her former affiliation with a terrorist group, armed with that knowledge the teachers proved to be exemplary in their actions of treating her as just another student, Glynda as strict and structured as she was was her personal favorite and the state she was in kindled a fierce anger inside herself.

With a few quick strides that caught her former comrades off guard as she closed the distance and attacked them, she focused her attack on the rat Faunus lieutenant as she knew he had aura unlocked and while she barely registered his ability to fight as a threat, he was still vastly stronger than the five grunts who stood with him. That wasn't to say she ignored the others either for every attack she sent the rats way her gun lashed out in another direction connect with the grunts, in a matter of moments the five grunts were on the ground either unconscious or groaning profusely in pain.

With the distractions dealt with she focused entirely on the Rat. Attacking with a speed her opponent could never hope to match she quickly overwhelmed and incapacitated him as well.

With her opponents dealt with she rushed to Glynda's side and worked to stop her teachers bleeding. Frantically she stemmed the flow of blood and when she was certain that the bleeding was no longer the largest issue she went about giving her unconscious teacher a quick once over to see if there were other less obvious injuries that needed attention as well.

Time passed slowly for Blake as she cared for her teacher, after an indeterminate amount of time three Bullheads did several quick flyovers of her location before eventually coming into land.

Two of the ships were clearly the missing ones that had dropped off herself and the other student this morning, the third one though was different, it still had Vale and Beacon markings but it was a sleeker design and judging from the noise it had more powerful engines as well.

As the smaller ship touched down five figures disembarked, Blake recognized only three of them Professors Port, Oobleck, and Ozpin. The other two were a Black haired man with red eyes that reminded her strongly of Yang, and a Brown haired woman carrying a staff.

* * *

Weiss didn't know how her hastily cobbled together plan had managed to work but every time her red haired opponent tried to attack his weapon would strike a glyph and his swing would miss by a wide margin.

The glyph she was using to buy time was a simple time dilation one that would slow the movements of anyone or anything that passed over it or through it. It was a fairly easy to produce ability for her but it was one that did not have much use in combat as while it was inexpensive to create for her and she could place one in an instant the quick fast ones normally had negligible effects.

Her opponents fighting style of drawing his weapon to attack and resheathing was her saving grace, after she had sent Nora and Ren to assist Ruby she put herself at great personal risk to affix a glyph to her opponent's weapon, luckily her impromptu attack had caught him off guard and he failed to retaliate properly and when her blade crossed his she placed a small glyph that she kept feeding dust to, it was complicated and messy but now every time the man drew his weapon to attack the glyph would pulse to life slowing his blade ever so slightly and giving her enough time to escape his blades reach.

Unfortunately, that plan was about to come to an end, her opponent hadn't seen through her trick yet, no it was coming to an end as she was quickly burning through the last of her appropriate dust to maintain the glyph for much longer. Her new hope was her teammates being able to finish with their opponent and come support her but judging by the noise the larger Faunus was still holding his own as she could hear his mechanical sword clearly between the other shots and explosion that she knew where Nora's and Ruby's and if she strained she could even hear the quieter small calibre fire from Ren as well.

Her mind raced against time as her opponent drew and swung again, the Glyph still held, she could feel it but it was weak.

What remained of her other dust was primarily offensive options which without fully understanding how her opponent was absorbing and returning the damage with his own amplified attacks she didn't even bother considering using it at least not to directly attack with.

Again the Red haired Faunus drew his blade and swung this time after resheathing Weiss didn't feel the glyph anymore and knew she was out of time, she spun the dust chamber on Myrtenaster and waited for the next inevitable sword draw attack.

If her opponent was tired or frustrated she didn't know, his mask obscured too much of his face to betray any real emotion, he had even stopped talking after so few words preferring to not waste his breath, anytime she tried to goad him into speaking was met with silent resistance.

Weiss struggled against her instinct's to attack the man as he moved well into her range for her sword to strike him she would wait and put everything into defense and dodging to not allow him a way to build up power.

So began a rapid dance of movements where for ever step he took she would move the way her instructors taught her back in Atlas to maximize the best possible chance to defend or retreat.

Dodge.

Sidestep.

Sidestep.

Parry.

For long tense minutes the fight continued like this as her fatigue piled ever higher, as if fate conspired against her to lose this fight on her next move she misjudged her step and slipped, it was only the most minor or mistakes but it was about to cost her everything, time slowed down for her as a she watched in horror a blade stained with her classmates blood drew forth and swung for her unerringly, she flinched in the face of death and squeezed her eyes shut.

* * *

Jaune had no idea how far away Team WNRR was and instead of trying to quietly follow the trail of destruction left in Adams wake he instead sprinted over the rough terrain covering as much ground as he could as fast as he could.

He passed a few bodies of his classmates which were clearly beyond help at this point and pushing himself harder, as he ran long agonizing minutes passed him by, finally he heard a familiar sound of Ruby firing her weapon in rapid succession and an explosion mixed in, as he got closer he spotted Ren as well who was on the sidelines bleeding heavily from a wound on his side but waiting for any chance he might get to attack the large Faunus.

While he was loathe to leave the three to deal with their opponent the fact that he did not see Weiss or Adam pushed him to search for any indication of where they might be, as he had tracked the group the degree of damage from Adam's attacks had been decreasing and with it the trail was becoming harder and harder to notice.

Jaune eventually noticed some damage farther off and turned to it and ran eventually he found Weiss and Adam just as the Faunus was about to strike a mortal blow, without though Jaune hurled his weapon at Adam, the knee-jerk reaction saved Weiss's life as his thrown sword stuck Adam's sword arm and knocked his swing wild.

Jaune watched as Weiss to her credit after realizing she wasn't dead recovered her footing and escaped from Adam's reach. Glancing at where his weapon now rested Jaune knew recovering it was hopeless, it was on the other side of his opponent, he instead took up a fighting stance and waited for Adam to attack, he had seen his blade briefly during the moments earlier and was relieved to see that no glow emanated from the blade.

 _If he has no power build up I should be able to delay him with just hands long enough to be able to retrieve my sword._ Jaune dodged past Adam's first swing actually moving closer as he dodged. Jaune smiled when Adam resheathed his sword. _I should really find who taught Adam how to fight like this and thank him for making this too easy._

As close as he was Jaune kicked forward driving the heel of his shoe in the pommel of Adam's sword as he was about to redraw for another attack, with his first failure he tried to back up and make room for himself but Jaune just followed keeping as close as possible, Jaune knew Adams patience was likely beyond gone and wasn't even surprised when he heard the familiar sound of Blush firing and Wilt rocketing out of the scabbard gun.

His purpose for the unconventional attack was a success as soon as he heard the weapon fire he turned and scooped up his own blade which was only a few feet from him at this point.

* * *

After her escape, Weiss had turned to assist Jaune since he now lacked a weapon but had been dumbfounded as to how Jaune dealt with his current predicament. With no hesitation Jaune stepped into the red haired Faunus's attack, dodging the blade by a hair's breadth, with the close quarters every time Jaune was about to be attacked he would strike out with a lightning fast kick which would strike the pommel of her opponent's sword, every time this happened the man would back up and attempt to attack again only to be followed and have his actions stopped.

This stopped when an unfamiliar gunshot rang out and the red haired Faunas drew his weapon in an instant, the entire time she fought with him he wasn't even taking the fight seriously, the thought of that both infuriated her as well as humbled herself realizing if she survived through this she still had a long way to go.

With her attention focused on the Faunus she missed when Jaune recovered his weapon, if she had been paying attention to him she would have noticed he had moved for the weapon a split second before the shot was fired but her attention was focused on trying to find a way to combat their enemy.

* * *

Adam didn't know who this blonde kid was and if not for the fact that he was proving a challenge to nail down he wouldn't care, but right at this moment, his new adversary was enraging him. Every sword strike was dodged with the slightest bit of movement on his opponents behalf and every shot was intercepted by his opponents heavily armored arm.

Each time he moved to attack the blonde would step in to both evade his swing as well as get in reach to attack with his much shorter sword, each hit was negligible but he could feel them piling up gradually, on top of everything the boy was constantly throwing feints that when Adam moved to absorb the hit with his blade would stop short and instead Adam would be treated to a kick or a punch or in a few instances the blondes blade would turn at the last second and bite into his aura but never would it strike his blade.

For the first time in a long time Adam was losing a fight by a wide margin he was clearly outclassed by the blonde swordsman and he knew it, he focused on trying to find a way out of his predicament, his obvious choice wasn't to run he had no reason to believe that he could escape someone who could so easily best him in a fight, no his goal was again the Schnee Heiress, unfortunately during their fight he had no chance to get closer to his target instead not only was he farther from her than ever whether it was intentional or not the blonde swordsman stood frustratingly in his path every attack meant to force the man aside was countered perfectly to allow him to remain to block his path to the Schnee.

* * *

Jaune moved with a relaxed ease, to him Adam was an easy opponent, once a long time ago Adam was a source of fear in his life but those days were gone.

Everything about Adam was predictable, from his responses to his gestures his combat style and his obsession with Blake.

Adam out of all his enemies was predictable, and it combat that was a fatal mistake, the Faunus leader due to his overpowering semblance had long lost the ability to think around his opponents, instead he always sought to overpower anyone stronger than himself with his semblance, his few trump cards were woefully inadequate as well, the appearance of Blush was meant to confuse opponents stronger than him but even then he barely utilized the firearm instead focusing more heavily of sword strikes, his other trump card was something he hadn't earned yet, a gift Salem would bestow on him years from now if he managed to survive that long.

There was one odd thing about this encounter that had Jaune on edge and that was Adam's attitude or more appropriately his determination to reach Weiss like his life depended on it, in the past Adam would run as soon as the fight turned against him for some reason this Adam was committing to the fight, and that commitment made him more dangerous.

Wild and angry strikes swept towards him trying to force a path open for Adam to reach Weiss, Jaune stoically refused to budge instead he responded to these wild strikes with a precision born on a thousand lifetimes of practice. The stronger Adam attacked the more time he needed to recover which meant he was more and more susceptible to stronger attacks from himself, on one such counter attack Jaune stabbed towards Adam's exposed thigh this time instead of striking Aura his blade bit deeply into the flesh stopping when it connected with bone, Jaune's swing hadn't been hard enough to break the bone he was only aiming to bleed his opponent of his aura.

With the sight of the blood Jaune swung hard again with his sword purposefully striking Adams blade knocking it down and away the sword flared with energy for a moment before once again losing its luster as it hit the ground.

Jaune had followed his heavy sword strike with his gauntleted armguard his powerful blow connecting cleanly against Adam's skull, the force of the blow as well as not having any Aura to speak of left Adam unconscious on the ground bleeding heavily from his thigh as was as his nose which was clearly broken at this point.

Jaune wanted nothing more than to kill Adam and if he was alone that would have been exactly what he would have done but with Weiss watching he settled with knocking him out in hopes he would bleed to death from his leg wound while unconscious.

As Jaune turned to check on Weiss the area they were in erupted into chaos. The remaining three members of team WNRR pushed through the brush looking exhausted and sporting a few injuries none more noticable than Rens as Nora helped him walk as his side was wrapped in a makeshift bandage that looks like it was torn Nora's jacket, following behind them was concerned looking Pyrrha and a very angry red-eyed Yang who's look was focused solely on the unconscious form of Adam prone on the ground.

Jaune watched fearfully as Yang took first one then another then a third angry stride to the prone and defenceless body, it was one thing to explain killing in combat it would lead to a lot of uncomfortable questions but people would understand eventually, killing a defenceless person even if it was an enemy was something that could change opinions of a person for a lifetime, as Yang took her fourth stride he moved to intercept her, though with her fifth stride she faltered as Jaune watched a familiar black bird settle land on Adam's chest and stare intently at Yang, her eyes shifted from red to lilac her anger was still there Jaune could see it boiling just under the surface as she looked to him once with a betrayed expression before returning to the others.

Jaune watched the bird he knew was Qrow turn to look at him now the bird would look at him then to the leg back and forth multiple times, he knew what Qrow wanted and as much as he didn't want to he moved to Adam's side quickly tossing his weapons well beyond the unconscious Faunus's reach and quickly and roughly tied off the man's leg hampering the blood loss and probably saving the bastards life. He had briefly considered feigning ignorance to Qrows instructions but that would just have the bird Qrow disappear into the trees only for his drunken form to appear and do the job himself.

With that done, bird Qrow took off into the sky it never strayed far as Jaune watched it do large circles every so often with would dive out of sight before eventually reappearing, eventually it dove into the trees nearby and from those trees emerged Qrow and someone he had never seen outside of a medical pod deep in Beacon's sub levels.

'AMBER'

* * *

 **Well this was a chapter that took some doing.**

 **Between having next to no time to write and not being happy with the original draft and after various corrections still not being liking it I chose instead to think on it and ultimately do a complete rewrite.**

 **That being said a decent amount of the original was kept in some form or another.**

 **The largest change was who I chose to fight with Adam, It was initially Yang and I loved the way the fight flowed her anger and hatred towards him made it enjoyable to write, unfortunately the consequences of having Yang be Adam's opponent was I couldn't think of any reason Yang would spare him even if she was reviled by the student body or expelled from Beacon there was no logically way I could write for Yang to be Adam's opponent and not have wrote myself into a corner.**

 **My second thought was to have Blake participate in the fight with Yang but again Yang's hatred would cause a severe division between herself and Blake that I didn't want to include.**

 **My options for Adam's opponents dwindled to a Jaune fairly quickly, he hates Adam as much if not more than Yang but due to experience he isn't blinded by hatred which allows him to make objective decisions still also it allowed me to show just how overpowering Jaune is in a fight where skill plays a more important role than how overpowered someone's Semblance is.**

 **Now on to the other major topic.**

 **With the M rating I gave this I always intended for death to play an active role aside from Jaune's many repeats and references to deaths Jaune has himself experienced or witnessed through his lives.**

 **People, potentially even my Major characters may meet their ends before I finish this story.**

 **The next chapter will go through the fallout of the events of Forever Fall there might be enough that I will split it into two chapters I will have to see just how much detail I want to invest into it.**

* * *

 **If anyone here like the X-COM franchise I have another story started that will be posted infrequently as my time permits as it is a lower priority to this and my other projects but if you want another X-COM/RWBY crossover check out ADVENT Failure.**

* * *

 **As always Follow / Favorite / Review**


	21. Chapter 21

The forest was noisy with activity, once an all clear was given Bullheads filled with medical personnel as well as professional huntsmen who had been notified by Ozpin began arriving. Students who were hiding in the forest were being tracked and found, injured students were prioritized and sent back to Beacon as soon as they could.

Professors Oobleck and Port had taken charge of coordinating the efforts and between the two men operations were performing with both efficiency and care, so much so that Ozpin had opted to return to Beacon on one of the earlier returning Bullheads for two reasons the first was to check on Glynda's condition and the other was to begin preparing a report to the Vale council as well as contact a few trusted individuals.

* * *

Qrow watched his nieces teams with concern, when he first found them he barely recognized Yang, instead the person he saw in her place was his sister, Qrow wished he knew what had caused Yang to have such a terrifying expression.

Qrow was certain the man whose life he saved was Adam Taurus, and while he didn't really give a damn about him Ozpin would have questions and Ironwood would have more questions, hell even Lionheart in Mistral would probably have questions.

He was glad his niece still recognized his avian form enough to snap her out of her bloodlust, for a moment though he wasn't certain that would have been enough, he also took a chance that the blonde swordsman knew his secret the fact that he did didn't actually concern him much, what did concern him though was how the kid stared at Amber.

When she first appeared behind him the kid's eyes bugged out and he flat out stared at Amber for an uncomfortable amount of time, since then Qrow watched Jaune as the group moved back to the Bullheads and from time to time he would catch the kid staring at Amber when he thought no one was looking his eyebrows and forehead scrunched like he was trying to answer a difficult question.

He let Amber lead the group back to the Bullheads, after listening to Ruby's account of her fight he went off in search of their missing opponent.

* * *

Blake had refused to leave when offered the choice to accompany Ozpin back to Beacon, she chose to wait for news from her team, the wait had been arduous as medical and security personnel moved through the area returning with the injured or dead student as well as numerous White Fang prisoners.

So far none of the Fang that had been hauled by had seen her for which she was grateful, but to be safe she made sure to stay away from the trail's leading into the clearing, instead she took up a spot far from the commotion sitting among the wreckage of the crashed bullhead and watched the activity from a distance.

Every so often she would spot a White Fang member she recognized to be one of Adams lieutenants, gradually the numbers increased until only two were missing, Adam himself and his right-hand man who preferred to go by his nickname Banesaw.

"Ms. Belladonna, are you sure you would not rather return to Beacon? We already have confirmation from multiple Huntsmen that your team is safe and accounted for!" Dr. Oobleck stood beside Blake having dealt with the last Bullhead to leave.

"Thank you for your concern, but no, I will wait for them and we will return to Beacon together!"

Oobleck's eyes narrowed in concern, he had only known the young lady for a short time and while he could definitely tell she was forming strong bonds with her new team be didn't truly believe that was her entire reason for waiting. He, of course, knew her heritage and the fact that she once belonged to the White Fang herself, he had watched her closely while performing the coordination of the rescue operations and knew that this was the group she was formerly affiliated with.

"If that is your wish so be it, but please if you need anything please do not hesitate to ask I will be nearby!"

Blake watched in silence as Oobleck returned to his task, her mind was in turmoil over the actions of her former allies.

 _This wasn't about equality or fair treatment._ Her mind went to her brief interaction with the Rat Faunus lieutenant. _He was loyal to a fault to Adam, all of them are, he said they were trying to capture a Bullhead, but why though? Adam's Fang never needed one before, he always chose to travel by more mundane and conventional means, that aside any captured Vale Bullhead could be tracked easily._

Blake's thoughts came to a stop as a stretcher carrying a familiar figure was rushed into the clearing and hastily loaded onto a Bullhead and departed.

As she watched the Bullhead carrying the unconscious form of Adam Taurus away she shifted her seat slightly and waited, hoping to see the giant form of Banesaw to appear to give her closure that Adam's entire cell had been dismantled.

* * *

Banesaw traveled with a silent grace that belied his huge physic, his weapon was lost in the final moments of his fight against the three young huntsmen, he was not overly concerned about the loss, his weapon could be easily replaced, unlike some more complicated weapons.

His fight had been frustrating, the speed of the scythe wielder had impeded his ability to support Adam against the Schnee, and when the Hammer wielder joined her he could do nothing but focus on his own encounter. The fight might have ended in his favor if not for the third combatant, the one who wielded the pair of pistols never attacked without landing a telling blow. Though the young man was the reason he himself found a chance to escape.

He had waited for the man to attack, goading him into his unprotected flank, when the Huntsman moved to attack, Banesaw struck, his weapon tore into the teen's aura so hard it pushed through and cut flesh, with that though he lost his weapon, the scythe and hammer wielders struck his weapon from either side destroying it.

Unarmed Banesaw thought he was done for but with the young man injured the hammer wielder rushed to his side abandoning the fight, and the scythe wielder was in a state of confusion about what she should do, he took the opportunity to slip into the tree's and flee from a now unwinnable encounter.

He was concerned about the fact that Adam had been captured or at least he assumed, the fact that his leader had not appeared yet made Banesaw nervous.

Many among Adam's circle of trust would not place his intellect very high, most figured Banesaw was a lieutenant due only to his near fanatical devotion to Adam as well as his ability for combat.

Banesaw was actually fairly intelligent, he understood the reasons for Adam's decisions better than most and that's what made him his right hand, though now he was struggling with what to do, he assumed Adam was either dead or captured, the Vale Council wouldn't pass up the opportunity to brag about either so he didn't bother searching for his leader, anyone who could best Adam could certainly best himself. He slowly picked his way through the forest, sometimes stopping for long periods of time as he heard unfamiliar voices talking loudly.

* * *

Weiss followed the group as they made the trek back to the Bullheads, her opponent had been whisked off at a much faster pace by medical and security personnel, her group took a much slower pace.

As she followed the group she listened as Ruby and Nora took turn's describing their fight against the large man and his unfortunate escape. The man who appeared after the fight was over she learned his name was Qrow, and he was apparently Ruby and Yangs Uncle. He had left the group under his companions care as he went off in search of this other escaped enemy.

She followed the group in silence only half listening to the scattered conversations the others we attempting to make which stopped after they came across the first body, the Female huntsmen at this raised her staff and sent up a flare, moments later men came and took the body away and their group started moving again.

With the silence she focused on remembering her fight with the Red haired Faunus, Adam Taurus, she had overheard his name spoken by Qrow. The Faunus had toyed with her, had he taken the encounter seriously at all she knew she would have been captured or worse.

Then Jaune arrived, she wasn't even sure what she had watched from that point forward.

Her rescuer had thrown his weapon to save her life and had then proceeded to fight empty handed, well not for long, Jaune recovered his blade in moments as well as forcing his opponent to reveal a second hidden weapon. She had been about to step in and support Jaune but her legs wouldn't move she was transfixed watching the fight.

Jaune flowed, her mind could not think of a more fitting way to describe how Jaune moved, his moves had no hesitation, for every move his opponent made Jaune looked to be moving in perfect sync, walking past any attack to land one of his own. Even when Adam had lost any semblance of control and began attacking wildly Jaune had appeared unphased, if anything his attacks started to hit the Faunus harder and harder until finally, he cut through his foes Aura and deeply into his leg, his now crippled opponent took only one more blow after that, Jaune had fiercely stuck the Faunus in the skull laying him out flat and rendering him unconscious.

Weiss replayed the fight in her mind dozens of times before they reached the Bullheads and several more times after that as the returned to Beacon on a very quiet Bullhead ride.

* * *

Ozpin sat in his office, he rarely every sat when he had company but the final report being given to him by Professor Oobleck. A full day had passed and a detailed account had been prepared.

With a tired nod, he indicated for Oobleck to begin.

Oobleck took several tries to begin speaking before finally in a quiet voice he began.

Ozpin sat in silence as Oobleck listed over a dozen names of deceased students.

Next came the list of those occupying the infirmary, the list held the names of almost every student that went to Forever Fall, most were minor cases that held no real concern, Aura exhaustion was not a life threatening problem it just required rest, there were numerous students who we suffering from bullet wounds, all were expected to make full recoveries.

Gradually Oobleck reached the end of students in the infirmary with the exception of four names.

"Has there been any word on Team CRDL?"

"Yes, Headmaster. With the help of Qrow Branwen Team CDNL was located only a short while ago, I did not have time to add their names into my report but they are as follow's.

'Cardin Winchester - Right arm removed at the shoulder, reattachment impossible due to severe trauma, Stabbed once in the chest, currently alive, critical condition.'

'Russell Thrush - Hand's and forearms removed, reattachment impossible due to severe trauma, part of torso missing as well as one lung irreparably damaged, critical condition.'

'Dove Bronzewing - Found Deceased.'

'Sky Lark - Found Deceased.'

Their injuries are the result of Adam Taurus's Semblance, Weiss Schnee's account of events corroborate this, as well as information Blake Belladonna, volunteered on admission to Beacon Academy."

"Thank you, Bartholomew." Ozpin turned away from his colleague, his shoulders sagged as a great weight settled into place, it was one that he had grown accustomed to carrying through his life but for the first time in many years did the weight truly feel heavy. "... Bartholomew while Glynda is incapacitated could you please handle her duties?"

"I can and shall, but I assume you mean only the administrative duties she performed for you, her and my own lessons overlap many times I don't think I will be able to fill that position."

"No, help on the administrative side is all I require, but if you could please draft up the proper papers to request a proper temporary replacement for the time being?"

"Of course sir, I will have it done for you by the morning."

The two men exchanged a few more words before Ozpin was left alone in his to empty office, his hand curled around the handle of his mug squeezing it so hard the porcelain handle began to crack, gradually his grip relaxed and he placed a call through is personal terminal, the device only flashed once before the other end picked up.

"Good Evening James."

* * *

It had been several days since Forever Fall and his team was falling apart, well that's not true Pyrrha was aside from being somber was the same as always. His team was falling apart due to Yang and Blake.

Blake was... well Jaune wasn't actually sure what was wrong with Blake, he got the impression that she was deeply saddened but at the same time incredibly afraid, he kept a close eye on Blake for any signs of her vanishing but so far she didn't seem inclined to flee Beacon and her team so Jaune wasn't exactly sure how to approach her so choose to leave that alone for the time being.

Yang, on the other hand, he was getting fed up with, as soon as they had a chance to be alone after returning to Beacon she had made known the reason behind her anger, Jaune knew better than to argue with her, he knew that would only ever end in an even larger fight, instead he chose to let Yang calm down on her own and hopefully understand the decision he made on her own. Sadly this hadn't worked or if it was it was going very slowly, so slowly that Jaune was ready to just hash this out in a yelling match with Yang if that's what she wanted, but she was being crafty and using her sister and team WNRR as a shield to prevent Jaune from having any chance of approaching her alone.

With patience, and a vast amount of knowledge tucked away in his mind he slowly stripped away Yang's shield.

Nora and Ren were easy, a simple rumor about a secret vault in the cafeteria and Nora had to investigate and of course, Ren would go as well to keep her from destroying too much property.

Ruby was also fairly easy, a discreet mention of damage to Cresent Rose and Ruby couldn't find an excuse fast enough to go and do a full maintenance on the weapon.

Weiss simply bored Yang into leaving after that, Jaune made sure to stay away from Weiss during this point lest he be dragged into one of her study sessions and Yang would make an escape.

With Yang's shield of people torn apart, he finally made his approach, he could tell before even being close enough to speak she still harbored a deep animosity towards him for excluding her in the fight against Adam.

"Yang, I think we should talk." he looked around noticing the amount of stares they were earning and added, "Maybe somewhere a bit more private."

"I have nothing to say to you though!" Yang kept her voice low so the others nearby would not overhear the very icy edge in her voice.

"Fine, if that's the case then when you grow up come and find me and I'll see if I'm in the mood to bother with you any further!" Jaune matched her volume for her response but instead of her icy threatening tone, his was one of disappointment, if she was completely unwilling to listen then confronting her would be a waste of his time.

Not waiting for a response Jaune turned on his heel and left, it being the weekend he could easily make himself scarce, he had been meaning to check out a few of Romans haunts in Vale to try and find out what had happened the criminal.

Jaune had barely made it out of the hall where he confronted Yang before being grabbed by his collar and thrown bodily into an empty classroom by a very angry looking Yang.

"How dare you be upset with me!"

Jaune thanked any god who was listening that Yang still had the presence of mind to keep her voice down.

"You took Adam from me! He was mine to deal with, not yours or anyone else!" as she spoke her lilac eyes would flash red, her anger with him was pushing the limits of her control.

"He wasn't your Adam, he will never be your Adam, your Adam is dead if you don't remember you killed him with your own two hands!" Jaune kept his voice even as he responded to Yang's anger.

"No! He will turn out the same, you said so yourself, he is always an enemy, he doesn't deserve to live!"

"Yes, Adam is and was an unrepentant monster, I know better than anyone exactly how far he is willing to go! I also understand the consequences of going too far myself."

"I would have killed him!"

"Yes, you would have, you know how his Semblance works you know how to fight him, I have no doubt that you would have killed him, but what happen's after that?"

"What do you mean after that? Adam would be dead and we wouldn't have to worry about the Fang anymore!" Yang folded her arms as if to say Jaune was stupid for even asking that question.

"Adam's dead, the White Fang is, for the most part, dealt with, and you are now ostracized by your teammates and friends, Beacon's teachers watch your every move going forward, your every action is scrutinized by everyone."

"That wouldn't happen people would have understood!"

Jaune watched as Yang's wall of anger formed its first flaw.

"Would they? From what I've seen even though your being hailed as a hero by some students, others stare at you in concern, even the teachers are watching you more closely, actions have consequences and I would rather you not have to experience some of the things I have. They were painful lessons to endure."

"So, what I am I expected to do? Sideline myself for every opponent I might lose my temper over and kill! Everything I have experienced makes me believe that that is a terrible decision."

"Hardly, I couldn't and wouldn't expect you to take a back seat on fighting our enemies. I do however want you to gauge your surroundings, pay attention to the attitudes coming from the other students and the staff as well. You might learn something and who knows maybe by the time I get back you might see things from another perspective."

"When you get back? Where are you going?"

"I am going to find out what happened to Roman, honestly it's something I should have done long before now, I kept putting it off or ignoring it but with the massive change to Forever Fall and not to mention the Fall Maiden apparently not being in some near death state I need to find out where Roman is."

"So you are just going to abandon me at Beacon? For someone who just said you weren't going to sideline me it's hard to believe you when you're apparently going to hunt down another enemy!"

Jaune felt a new wave of anger wash over him from Yang, yet he kept his tone and expression passive.

"This, right here, your anger flaring out of control, I can't trust you to keep a level head when enemies are around, I told you what I'm intending to do, knowing full well you could easily follow me, but I'm hoping that you will take time to calm your anger, and maybe understand my side of the argument. The decision is up to you, tag along with me and prove me wrong that you can control yourself, or stay here and understand through reflection why I'm concerned. Either way, I am leaving from the Bullhead docks in an hour make your choice and meet be there, or not depending on your decision."

Jaune turned and left the room, not pleased with the conversation as a whole but he had spoke the truth, and if Yang would stop seething in her own anger she would recognize that he was only trying to prevent her from making a grave mistake.

* * *

Silence reigned in Yang's mind for the first time since Forever Fall, her anger still burned fiercely but it was muted with Jaunes words, she had tried not to listen, she didn't want to, all she wanted to see was Adam broken and dead before her. Logic wormed its way through the anger though, she remembered the praise Pyrrha and she received from the other students and recognition from the teachers.

 _That hadn't changed, Jaune is wrong... isn't he?_ Yang sat down in an empty chair and tried to focus on the time between Forever fall and now, she remembered being thanked repeatedly, she could even remember as early as this morning someone thanking her, the numbers had decreased but that would only to be expected after a period of time. _Yes, Jaune was wrong no one is behaving weirdly but him!_

Yang left the room intending to grab her gear to join Jaune on his task to track down Roman Torchwick.

It hadn't been a long interval between when Jaune and herself left the classroom but he was already nowhere to be found, for as angry as she was she still trusted him to keep his word and wait the full hour but she intended to be at the docks ahead of him, quickly she made her way to the locker area grabbing Ember Celica, as well as changing out of her uniform and into her more comfortable combat clothes. Checking her wallet and Scroll to make sure she had everything and once sure that she did hastily made her way to the docks to wait for Jaune.

Arriving at the docks as early as she did, Yang now realized she still had close to the full hour to wait, looking around for a comfy place to wait and finding one she quickly claimed the spot.

Time passed slowly from then on, the simple hour felt like much more as she was constantly checking and rechecking her Scroll, trying to will time to pass faster.

Giving up on trying to relax and pass time naturally, she stood and began pacing, mentally going over how if they found Roman she would fight him.

She only had scattered memories of how Roman fought during this period of time, during her time at Beacon leading up to Neo's death Roman used a Cane of some sort that would fire projectiles with frightening accuracy. She had never actually fought the criminal herself, at least not alone, not until after Neo's death where the now silent criminal took to using his dead accomplices parasol as a weapon, that Roman she was familiar with, the one who killed her, the thought of her death for the first time raised her anger.

 _It's only because I'm already angry, that's the only reason!_

Pausing her pacing Yang attempted to calm her temper, it had been something she had been doing a lot recently, every time she thought of Adam she would need a moment to compose herself, now though she was attempting the same thing while thinking of an opponent who never truly affected her personality before.

The pause persisted and instead of being able to calm herself, the opposite was occurring, heat rolled off her in waves, a precursor to her early days, before she mastered her Semblance, struggling against the effects of her anger, gradually she grasped control of her anger and her Semblance and brought both under her control.

She didn't realize it while focusing on herself, but she had closed her eyes and balled her fists so tightly that ever through her own Aura her hands were cut and bleeding from the force she had exerted, looking at her hands she then noticed she had an audience, not many but enough to make her self-conscious, among the crowd there were many people staring at her with simple interest or confusion over her odd behaviour she picked out a few faces that held fear, fear of her.

Turning from the crowd she retreated to her original spot once again to await Jaune's arrival, trying to ignore the few scattered looks of fear she saw among the crowd. Pulling free her scroll again to check the time her shoulders sagged when barely only half the time had elapsed.

Frustrated with the slow passage of time and the still lingering stares of the few scattered people staring her way, she tried to shift her train of thought to anything else but no matter what her mind would always come back to Adam being alive, Jaune excluding her from the fight, and now to thinking of ways to hurt Roman.

As time moved closer to when Jaune would be arriving her thoughts slipped further from any form of calm, careful search, to instead to one of cracking skulls and turning the city upside down to track down Roman, so invested in her thoughts she didn't even notice when the Blonde swordsman moved to stand in front of her.

"I guess this is your decision then? Well, get up we need to get moving."

Yang was startled by the voice, it sounded again neutral and after looking at Jaunes face trying to read his emotions of her choosing to go with him instead of staying at Beacon all there was was an expressionless face, not betraying his feeling one way or another yet to her it felt like he was disappointed.

"No, good luck Jaune, I'll be waiting here for you when you get back."

Yang stood and walked past Jaune, no gesture of parting was made.

Jaune stood in silence for a moment, as the moment slide by he turned and headed for the docks, his eyes flared with pride as he walked onward.

* * *

 **Here is another one!**

 **Not much to say really.**

 **Focusing heavily on Yang's anger was interesting and fun to write, normally finding the way I want to express conversations between Jaune and Yang is a struggle but this one seems easy to write. Honestly not sure if that was a good or bad thing, I'm going to choose good until the reviews tell me I'm wrong.**

 **What else... Qrow is concerned about Yang, Blake is concerned about the missing Banesaw + the reasons behind the attack in general, Weiss is trying even harder to understand Jaune or the mystery behind him, and finally, Jaune is on a scavenger hunt for Roman Torchwick. Plus a whole slew of other things.  
**

 **Anyways...**

 **Follow / Favorite / Review**

 **Oh hey before I forget, I group of you seem to really enjoy the extra fleshing out of past life experience I occasionally do for Jaune and Yang, I don't have any ready ATM but if you think of something you want fleshed out or elaborated on let me know and I'll see if I can fit in.**


	22. Chapter 22

"I will have one of my best sent to Beacon immediately to get to work on the two young men."

"Thank you, James, I knew I could count on your aid." Opzin sighed in relief now that he had procured aid for his two students who required aid that was beyond Vale's ability to treat.

"Think nothing of it Ozpin, though are you certain you wish to keep the details of this conflict secret, particularly from Jacque?"

"I have already spoken with Weiss on the matter, she knows if her father felt she was threatened here in Vale he would force her home, which she made clear is not what she wants."

"Very well! On to another topic then, has Qrow discovered the source of the Faunus that attacked your students?"

"Yes, though the situation seems to be complex, Qrow found the Faunus encampment, it was completely abandoned except for a large amount of wounded Faunus, judging from the injuries these wounded had been fighting Grimm. After expanding his search area Qrow found huge concentrations of Grimm all along the edges of the forest, as well as several areas's that appeared to be where the Faunus and Grimm might have fought for prolonged periods of time."

"If there are still Grimm present then the Faunus in those fights would have been wiped out, Grimm aren't known to leave injured opponents, where would all those wounded come from?" James expression became on of slight confusion in through the monitor.

"Actually Qrow answered that, the Grimm surrounding the forest didn't try to attack him, he stood in plain sight of one of the larger groups and they flat out ignored him, it wasn't until he attempted to leave some form of boundary that he was attacked, though once he retreated back past the boundary they went back to ignoring him."

Through the monitor, James expression went from one of slight confusion to a serious expression filled with concern.

"Ozpin, we know of only one being capable of controlling Grimm on that level."

"Yes, though there is no indication that Salem has left the Grimm continent."

"Even so, how do you explain the Grimm's actions in Forever Fall, we barely hold Salem in check, if another holds the same power as her it would mean terrible things, especially if they are aligned with each other!"

"I have already considered that as well a great many other things, which is why I have another request now that you understand what we might be dealing with."

"Of course, I will have the Atlas Military mobilized right away to help deal with this."

Ozpin shook his head, the action was replayed through the monitor to James. "I don't want your Army James, for two reasons, the first is this might not be an event local only to Vale, Salem might simply expose herself here to attack someone else, the second is simply moving your army is something Salem would not be able to miss and would mean if it is her we are at least partially aware of her plan, even if we don't know the end goal."

James frowned but acknowledged that Ozpin was right, he couldn't be careless, news of Glynda's injuries was making him think rashly as Ozpin had pointed out in their first conversation when he openly demanded to that Adam Taurus should be handed over to Atlas, as it was he still wanted the Faunus under his tender mercies but understood that was an unwinnable argument so he dropped the issue.

"Then what is it you need, if it is within my power I will help in any way I can."

"Thank you, James, it is a rather simple request, and I believe you will have an easy time finding a volunteer."

* * *

The Bullhead touched down in Vale and Jaune was moving before the engines had completely wound down, he wasn't in any particular hurry but he felt energized by Yang's decision to remain behind at Beacon, when he saw her waiting for him at the docks he was certain her intent was to accompany him, when she said otherwise Jaune couldn't have felt more proud of her, so much that he had wanted to remain behind himself to be with her for just a moment longer, he pushed aside that feeling, Roman, unfortunately, came first.

Jaune knew every warehouse Roman used, he knew which ones housed the stolen dust, where the Paladins were kept until the White Fang rally, he even knew where Roman went to hide if all his other hideouts were taken from him.

Jaune decided to start with the Dust warehouse's, they were easy to access and his presence in the area would be largely ignored, turning down a familiar street he quickly bypassed a large portion of Vale to arrive on the outskirts of the Industrial sector. The entire area smelled strongly of Dust machinery mixed with the Ocean that made a truly revolting odor, luckily the closer you got the waterfront the easier the smell became to tolerate as the Ocean would overpower the other scent.

Reaching the first warehouse Jaune found it entirely abandoned, at least from the outside, no hidden guards or anything, the building felt entirely devoid of any life, still, he had to at least get inside, appearances can be deceiving.

Breaking in was laughably easy, so much so that Jaune knew that Roman wasn't using the warehouse, no guards was one thing but not even a lock on the door was another, a quick look inside confirmed that not only had Roman not used this warehouse but it seemed like whoever owned it legally hadn't been using it for years either as everything was covered in thick layers of dust.

Jaunes search of the other warehouses were as fruitless as the first, no guards, no locks, no Dust, and most importantly no Roman.

 _Where the hell is he! It's like he doesn't even exist. No he clearly exists, he has a criminal record that proves that, though it doesn't show much activity, the last thing that was directly tied to him was a botched kidnapping in Atlas, news reports didn't even say who he was trying to grab just that Atlas was looking for him in regard's to an attempted kidnapping._

Jaune wiped his forehead primarily to wipe away the sweat, he had covered a lot of ground in a short period of time and had worked up both a sweat and an appetite.

Jaune made his way to the commercial district to solve at least his hunger problem and decide where to hunt for Roman next.

 _So, warehouse's have all been busts, either entirely unoccupied or serving legitimate businesses. No overly obvious White Fang to tail to a new facility either. So my option's are basically safe houses and Juniors. I'll save Junior for last, I might even go back for Yang, if she has really managed to calm down, Junior has always had a weak spot for her, well at least for their initial meeting, could save me a lot of time to have her flirt the info out of him as opposed to me having to wreck his joint, though that has always been cathartic in the past._

Finishing his meal Jaune continued his work, Roman only ever used two safe houses that Jaune had ever managed to track down, knowing Roman there was probably a couple more that no one outside of Neo knew of besides the thief.

Reaching the first location he took his time to carefully watch the boring, four-story apartment building, particularly the second floor, Roman had explained the second floor was the ideal floor to hide out on in one of the lives Jaune had gotten close to the criminal, Second floor far from any stairwell or elevator, plenty of time to see if people are coming for you, another side benefit of the second floor a jump to ground level wouldn't hurt you either, some people would argue with Aura the third floor would be the same, Roman would just smile at those people with a curious expression and never elaborate.

Jaune had figure out why the fall from the second and third floors was so different first hand though, a jump from the second floor you can jump, land, and keep running in one fluid motion, from the third floor you would jump, and then brace for a landing, all momentum was gone.

Watching the building was a pointless task, Roman had chosen this building well, it was moderately well maintained, respectable landlord, quiet neighborhood even, it was also isolated from any other structure which gave anyone inside it a better view than anyone who was outside trying to look in.

He couldn't afford the time to stake out the building long enough to catch the criminal entering or leaving and he doubted he would even then, Neo would just facilitate any travel Roman needed.

The respectable landlord was the other issue, the building actually had a security system, as well as a couple, rent a cop guards that were familiar with all the tenants, with a frustrated sigh Jaune left the building and proceeded to the second safe house, it was in a much seedier part of Vale, it practically screamed 'Illegal Activites' yet for some reason Jaune never figured out the Vale police never shut the place down, well at least not permanently.

A filthy woman by the name of Magda ran this particular establishment, rooms were constantly filthy, rodents and bugs infested the place and half the building was structurally unsound because of a fire that had destroyed the top floor that had never been repaired.

His eyes felt soiled just looking at the building, the sight jogged memories of just how terrible the inside was, Roman had been desperate with this building and Jaune knew that the man he wanted was not going to be here, he wasn't even saying that to avoid going in himself, Jaune remembered the night Roman, Neo and himself hid here, Jaune had convinced Roman to betray Cinder in the life but the betrayal went south fast, Roman and Neo went into hiding and Jaune tagged along briefly not that it mattered Cinder had tracked them down and killed the three of them, Jaune had survived the longest but there was nothing he could do back then that would have allowed him to fight even a Half-Maiden Cinder evenly.

Frustrated with his lack of any form of success Jaune turned and headed to his final option, Juniors, he still considered going back to Beacon for Yang but figured he didn't need to talk to anyone, pop in, sit as close as he could manage to Junior and hope to overhear anything, if that failed to earn any results he could always return tomorrow with Yang.

Entering Juniors was for reason's Jaune never did figure out was incredibly easy, no bouncers stood outside to turn people away even on weekends when the club would be filled to capacity. The place was kept clean and even when Yang wrecked the place on normal lives the place was only closed for a single solitary day.

It was still quite early in the day to be entering the club, at least without looking out of place, Jaune's current clothing plus his weapon clearly marked him as a huntsmen, so before reaching Juniors he took a slight detour to a swimming facility, a nice one that had lockers for people to lock up their valuables so they could swim without worrying, he was in and out of the facility in moments, he had stripped off his armor and weapon as well as his hoodie, leaving him in just his jeans and a tee-shirt.

Now that he would draw less attention to himself he, made his way to to the club, his clothing would let him easily pass for a simple day laborer looking to drink and relax, the sweat he had worked up earlier in his search through the warehouses added another visual level to his appearance.

Reaching Juniors he was greeted by the usual neon sign and nothing else.

Pushing open the door steady rhythmic music poured from inside immediately, one look to the dance floor and Jaune could see it was occupied by only a few lonely dancers that he was sure if he got close enough to any of them there be clear signs of drug use or abuse.

He paid no mind to the dance floor and little to the multitude of Juniors goon's that watched him for a moment before returning to their looks of boredom.

Junior stood behind the bar alone casually cleaning a glass that probably hadn't left his hand since he picked it up when he took his spot behind the bar, In his multiple lives Jaune had only seen Junior serve a handful of people personally, Some of them made no sense while others like Neo, and Roman he understood.

Jaune found an empty place along the bar only a few seats from perpetually empty ones in front of Junior, Jaune ordered a simple beer and sat to wait, to overhear anything, occasionally men would come out from the back room and speak in low tones to Junior, the man never reacted though, he would simply whisper back an instruction and that would be the end of it, this pattern persisted for four beers, just long enough for Jaune to feel like he had wasted his time entirely, much like the first safehouse he had visited he didn't have the time to commit to sitting here in hopes that Roman or any of his underlings would randomly enter for him to take advantage of.

Standing from his seat Jaune tossed the Lien he owed on the counter and turned to leave only to be stopped before taking a single step, one of the few being's on remnant who could move silently enough to sneak up on him was walking past his stool.

Jaune reacted on lifetimes of built up instinct, he lashed out with a powerful punch, only mid swing did his logic override the instinct, it was too late to stop his punch but he reacted quickly, he forcibly buckled his legs, the momentum from his swing as well as forcing himself to collapse caused Jaune to tumble to the floor looking like a pathetic drunk, unfortunately the target of his swing was tangled up in his fall as well, Jaune hit the floor hard and underneath him was a visibly angry Neo.

Working like his life depended on it Jaune quickly rolled off Neo, scrambled to his feet and even had the presence of mind to offer her assistance, the speed in with he did all three of those actions actually won a small smile from Neo as she took his hand and allowed him to help her to her feet, once she was on her feet though she promptly tripped Jaune sending him sprawling headfirst into the floor again.

Jaune could have dodged the trip but taking another dive into the floor was a far better option than pissing off Neo, the fact he had earned a smile as well as the retaliation was only another trip to the floor he considered himself lucky.

He stayed on the floor long enough that he felt necessary before rolling over and this time standing slowly, Jaune had expected Neo to have left after humiliating him but instead she stood there just waiting for him to get back to his feet.

It had been too long since Jaune had interacted with Neo, and even if he had he wasn't exactly sure what her current expression meant, she wore a small smile, one that would be considered attractive if the person only saw the smile, Jaune looked at the whole picture, Neo's head was cocked to one side and her eyes were alight with glee, a shudder of fear went down Jaune's spine, he needed a distraction for Neo and conveniently there stood one nearby.

"I'm so sorry, I guess I have had too much to drink, here as an apology let me buy you a drink." Jaune spoke slowly but still clear, he wanted to give off the impression that he was mildly drunk but not sloshed.

"You!" Jaune turned and pointed at Junior, "This girl is she a regular?"

Junior for the first time turned and looked at both Neo and himself, he glared at Jaune seemingly trying to will him out of existence for bothering to address him. "As regular as most the people who come through my doors."

"Good, then I will buy this wonderful lady as a token of apology, her favorite drink, whatever that is?" Jaune turned to look at Neo now. "As long as thats alright with you of course!"

Neo's smile widened as she heard the proposition and she nodded once to confirm.

"Huh, you don't talk much do you!" Jaune knew he would get no response but he was performing an act for the sake of his audience.

With Neo's nod, Junior actually went to work himself filling Neo's order, one of his goons had made a mistake recently when it was ordered and Junior ended up having to replace part of his counter as well as a few of his more expensive bottles that were kept underneath, in short order he slide the concoction of Ice Cream, Soda and sweet liquor in front of Neo.

Jaune was actually impressed with the dexterity Junior just displayed while filling the order, the man did actually know how to craft a drink if the occasion called for it.

Jaune handed Junior enough Lien to cover the drink plus enough for a couple more if Neo was so inclined, either way, Jaune wanted both of them to either not remember him at all or if they did at least for them to have a good memory.

Retreating to a secluded corner of the club which in itself was a task, as the day wore on the club progressively became more crowded, even so, Jaune found a place far from the bar but still supplied a view of where Neo now sat happily eating her treat.

 _I can't believe my luck, well I can't get ahead of myself if she uses her Semblance to leave I have no way to follow but on the off chance she doesn't she will lead me right to Roman._ Sitting in silence he watched as Neo finished her first order and promptly started on a second, as always he was impressed by the amount of calories the girl consumed daily and never suffered for it, though even she had limits as Jaune watched her finish her second drink Junior was about to prepare a third when Neo simply hopped off her seat and wandered away from the bar, Jaune tracked her through the club and cursed when she disappeared through an interior doorway Jaune knew would be impossible to follow but did give him hope as it might mean Roman was actually on the premises.

* * *

She smiled, she had been having a great day and two free ice cream floats had topped off her already great day wonderfully, when that drunk had tripped over her she almost expected to end her day on a sour note, the drunk teen had been adequately charming to earn himself a pass though, doubly so after buying her her favorite drink, even though it was less of a drink and more of a unique way to eat ice cream, but to top it all off he had the common sense to leave her alone after that.

Junior looked a little upset, the man was probably hoping to watch her break the teen for being so rude to directly talk to Junior, with her crooked smile she pushed through another door to find her partner casually relaxing in his private room, well she assumed Roman was relaxing, or as close as he got, Roman had been beside himself with joy when he learned that Cinders plan's for Adam Taurus and his White Fang had failed, almost the entire Vale branch of the White Fang was captured and what was left was virtually leaderless.

Sure his mood had dampened when Cinder had found one of Adam's lieutenants alone in the Forest guarding the Cave they had been using to hold the Alpha level Grimm, her plan was still achievable but adjustments had to be made once again.

"Neo, where have you been I thought you were just going to get some air?"

She simply stood and with a simple expression change and posture Roman got his answer.

"Oh well, I'm sure Junior will just add that to my Tab."

"..."

"Who's wallet did you lift to pay for them yourself?"

"..."

"What do you mean some kid bought them for you?"

"..."

"You should bring the kid here, let me thank him properly for you!"

"..."

"I am not jealous!"

"..."

"Fine be stubborn, I was just trying to be nice to your new friend."

Neo smiled devilishly, as much as she cared for Roman she also loved to antagonize the man, Roman was entirely aware of that fact as well.

Finding a comfy place to sit Neo looked at the paper strewn across the table, the main focus of these paper's was a picture that caught her attention.

Neo reached forward and grabbed a headshot of a blonde teen, one that had a striking resemblance to the teen who just bought her a couple drinks.

Quickly looking over the rest of the pile of papers she learned a fair amount, Roman was looking into the reports of who was present during the events of Forever Fall, two pictures had been separated from the rest the one she held in her hand and another of a blonde female.

"What's got your interest all of a sudden?" Roman stared at his partner as the young woman stared at the picture she had snagged with a focused expression.

Neo carefully folded the picture so that only the head showed, she then stole Roman's ash tray and smudged some ash into the picture once done she stood up with a smile and stared at Roman.

"Wait, you mean, that kid just bought you a couple drinks?"

A simple nod.

"Is he still here?"

Her head cocked to the side then a slower nod.

"Show me!"

* * *

Without a plan, Jaune decided to give up for the day, if Roman was in Juniors club he had no way of approaching the man that wouldn't be suspicious to him in every way.

It had only been a short time after Neo vanished through the door that Jaune turned to leave only to have the door swing open and this time behind Neo stood his target, Roman Torchwick.

Jaune watched a Neo raised her arm and pointed squarely at him, there was no hesitation in how her arm moved, Roman followed the arm and for an instant, Jaune and Roman locked eyes.

He ran, Jaune after the briefest look in Roman's eyes saw recognition, Roman knew who he was.

Jaune slipped out of the club, he had snuck a glance towards Roman and Neo and cursed when Neo flashed out of existence and Roman began to move down the bar, Jaune had chosen his location well he had a very thin crowd to weave through before reaching his exit, Roman on the other hand had to push past the crowd's of people gathered around the bar, Jaune hoped Neo wasn't waiting outside the main entrance, while Jaune knew he could best her alone even unarmed it wouldn't be a quick fight, Jaune reached the door and pushed past it.

As per the norm for Junior, there was no dense crowd outside from him to hide in.

Remembering his weapon and armor Jaune took off running, the building would be closed by this point in the day but he cared little for that, if he was caught by the two he wanted his weapon at the very least.

Neo and Roman worked frightening well as a team, they complemented each other well in any number of combat situations, Jaune was confident he could take either of them even being unarmed as he was right now but the two together, that was not something he wanted to find out at least not without his own blade.

Jaune covered the distance in a record time, not even bothering to slow down he threw himself through the door to the facility, Aura cushioning the impact, rushing he reached the locker area and quickly grabbed his sword, he looked at his armor and knew he didn't want to waste the time to put it all on, instead he hastily put on his heavy armguard and the rest was dumped into an empty bag he had appropriated.

He was in and out in only a few minutes feeling remarkably more confident with his blade resting at his side.

Leaving the building behind Jaune quickly made his way through the streets of Vale, only stopping when he felt confident that even with Neo's abilities they would be hard pressed to find him.

 _Why did he recognize me? Neo clearly didn't. There were the pictures released after the Forever Fall that would have had my headshot in them, but that didn't give any details aside from me being obviously an aspiring huntsman. Though Roman is intelligent, he wouldn't want any huntsman to close to him aspiring or otherwise, but still that look, why did it freak me out so much._

Finding a clean spot to sit in the alley he currently inhabited Jaune sat and tried to remember the expression Roman had when they locked eyes for an instant.

'Roman had been scanning the crowd in his direction the way Neo had pointed, it hadn't taken the Criminal long to spot Jaune, he knew he was found when Roman's eyes went wide, showing a level of surprise and recognition.'

 _Being recognized could mean anything, but why did that scare me so much?_

Jaune sat in that alley for most of the night, it was long past time when he could find a Ride back to Beacon and currently, the alley provided him a safe place to sit and think, his mind focused on Roman and the reason not only behind the recognition but the fear that recognition caused. As the night slowly turned to the next day Jaune finally understood why he had been so afraid.

He had focused on Roman's eyes when he first saw the man the clear recognition could have meant anything, but the more he thought about that brief look he couldn't help but remember the smile, it was a small thing, one that meant very little to anyone in this life but Jaune knew better.

When Roman had lost his ability to speak in his last life, he had adopted more than a few of Neo's traits, her crooked smile was one of them and when he saw and recognized Jaune he wore that exact same smile.

* * *

 **Well, Jaune figure it out!  
**

 **Of course, Jaune doesn't know that Roman isn't his enemy anymore but he will eventually.**

 **So hmm whats the plan.**

 **Ozpin is getting some help from Atlas, even if I was being evasive I'm pretty sure everyone will figure out who will be sent.**

 **So next Chapter will be a villain perspective one, I wish it could be entirely Roman and Neo but sadly I do have to devote some time to Cinder.  
**

 **Also, it isn't because writing it is so easy, but I freaking loved writing the conversation between Neo and Roman.**

* * *

 _An empty shell was all that remained, Signal, Patch and now her own home._

 _No words were spoken when she watched Jaune light the fire that would consume her home as well as the bodies of their friends and family._

 _Through the night she had watched Jaune stand alone at the edge of the fire, her final remaining friend, his lips would move but she could not hear what he was attempting to say._

 _As the fire grew and consumed her home, the others left, until just Jaune and herself remained._

 _She ignored her hunger, thirst, and exhaustion, she sustained herself on the memories of her friends both happy and sad times._

 _As the fire finally ran it's course and died away did it feel right to move again, her muscles and joints were stiff and sore from lack of movement but she turned to leave finally, through the silence she finally heard Jaune's voice._

 _"...failed them..., ...won't let...end..., ...help her, protect her..."_

 _Yang turned and looked at Jaune he had been standing alone, closer to the fire than ever herself, his face was marred with soot and ash except for two clean trails of tears._

 _So wrapped up in her own loss over the past few days she didn't realize how much Jaune suffered as well, he was the strong one, he had kept her from hurting herself after the pain of finding out not just Blake was gone but everyone.  
_

 _Now though, Jaune suffered alone in silence, no one beside him to share his own pain._

 _She approached Jaune and placed a hand on his arm, the touch brought him out of his own silent revery, he looked first to the hand and then to her, together they shared a weak yet reassuring smile, before turning together and leaving behind the grave of their friends and family._


	23. Chapter 23

Roman inwardly cursed as he watched Jaune flee through the club and disappear outside.

"Neo, follow him!"

"..."

"What do you mean no?"

"..."

"I know he bought you a drink!"

"..."

"Neo I don't want you to hurt him, just keep an eye on him, If he stops for a long period of time come and get me, I want to talk with him."

"..."

"I promise, only talk."

With a silent nod, Neo vanished in an instant white flash.

Roman stood in the doorway for a moment, considering returning to his private room, he almost did but as he was about to turn he chose another direction and moved towards Junior.

"Bourbon!"

Roman didn't even need to ask, as the glass was half poured before he had even taken the seat.

"Who was the kid you just chased out of my club?"

Roman accepted the glass and took a long slow drink attempting to find the right response to such a simple question. "He, is the source of my good fortune." Roman smiled at the overly cryptic answer.

"From the way he bolted, I doubt he feels very fortunate." Junior smiled, if Roman was being cryptic then the teen probably was worth something, at least to Roman, the time he had spent in Vale, Junior had watch Roman go from an already successful criminal to a truly unrivaled one, seemly able to turn a profit with terrible odd's against him, he had long since stopped trying to understand how his favorite patron kept one-upping all his competition.

"No..., I guess he probably wouldn't, well at least not yet." Roman looked into this cup for a moment before draining its contents in a single motion. "When Neo gets back tell her I headed back to the usual place."

Junior nodded as Roman turned and left the bar.

* * *

She had been annoyed with her task, even if the kid was a huntsman in training she didn't understand why Roman would bother sending her to follow him, though after only a short while she became interested in the blonde teen.

He moved with a frightening speed, Neo herself had to repeatedly use her semblance to not lose him as he vanished around corners, she wasn't a slouch when it came to moving fast her fighting style relied heavily on her being faster than her opponent, but in a flat-out run this one had her beat by a mile.

As the teen disappeared around a corner again she teleported to keep him in sight but when she reappeared the teen had vanished, Neo looked all along the empty street, it was filled with shops and business's that dealt with leisure, there were a couple arcades a few indoor arena's for sports and a swimming complex, Neo's eyes stopped on the swimming complex's door's, or more precisely what was left of them, one of the doors was missing entirely having been ripped from its hinges and probably laid on the floor inside the entryway, the other was limply swinging on one hinge.

She regarded the door with interest, it was an obvious choice for the blonde teen to be, as fast as he was he could not have managed to cleared the entire street before she had teleported so Neo found a dark corner and waited, the wait was short and rewarding, the teen appeared shortly a sword at his hip and a heavy looking armguard strapped to an arm, he carried a bag that looked to contain the rest of his armor that went with the armguard.

Being armed seemed to calm her target down as while he still kept moving dodging between alleyways and streets he no longer ran at his earlier breakneck pace, he kept his irregular pattern of movement up for a considerable amount before she watched him eventually stop in an alley.

Keeping her distance she found a spot not far from the alley that would keep her obstructed but also allowed her a commanding view in case the teen took off again.

With nothing better to do she studied the teen with interest, even from this distance she noticed a great many things about him, all completely unremarkable, blonde, tall, typical Huntsman build, all in all unremarkable, except she had thought him drunk, when he tripped over her at the bar, he smelt of cheap beer and he had talked with a slow rhythm, clearly he wasn't, a drunk would not have been able to flee the way he did.

She replayed the brief interaction in her head of their brief encounter and couldn't find anything noticeably wrong with it, instead, she sent one last look at the teen who was sitting peacefully in the alley and she blinked away to inform Roman of the outcome of the chase.

A quick stop at Juniors to find out he had left and another quick jump to the 'Usual Place' and Neo actually arrived ahead of Roman who would have to walk the entire way, Neo found a comfy spot to sit to wait for Roman's return, every so often she would pop back to the alley to make sure the teen was still there.

* * *

Roman reached the tiny storehouse Neo and himself currently worked out of, it was far removed from the docks and industrial area's of Vale and almost squarely located in the center of the commercial district, He didn't much care for the noise during the day but he had to admit a few hours of constant noise definitely beat the ever present odor of the docks.

Reaching the door he pushed inside with ease and wasn't surprised to find Neo waiting for him.

"He stopped then I take it?"

"..."

"He somewhere isolated?"

'single nod'

"Bring me there."

Roman let his Semblance grab onto Neo's and the two winked out of the small storehouse and now the two stood on a balcony overlooking an alley and it's sole occupant.

Leaning over the rail he inspected the blonde teen with interest.

 _Yeah, that's definitely Jaune, Same weapon, and that damn armguard, was a clever little trick, probably has saved your life plenty of times. Well no point sitting up here looking like a brooding idiot._

Roman glanced at Neo in concern he was glad the girl's attention was focused elsewhere at the moment.

"Neo, watch the far end of the alley, if he run's again just follow him, I don't want a fight." He sighed in relief when eventually his partner gave him a slow nod, albeit one mixed with a hint of confusion.

In a blink, Neo was gone.

Roman hopped the balcony railing and landed as softly as he could on the ground, and began to walk into the alley, he made no effort to hide the noise he was making he didn't want to be thought of as trying to sneak up on his target.

"How are you here Roman?"

Roman stopped, the voice was quiet and filled with hatred.

"The answer is much the same as yours I would assume."

"...Semblance..."

Roman heard a low laugh coming from the teen.

"So what is your Semblance? You have never escaped death before."

Roman listened to the voice the hatred was still present but behind it was a curiosity.

"My Semblance is much like my occupation, I steal or borrow other's Semblances, in this case, I borrowed yours, I didn't know what it was I was just trying to make sure you and the other blonde didn't escape your fate."

Roman heard sounds of movement coming from in front of himself, the most noticeable was the sound of a sword being drawn.

"No need for your weapon, I'm not looking for a fight."

"You will understand if I don't exactly trust your word, you do remember you did kill me!"

"Fair point. Still, I'm not your enemy anymore, I have a second chance and I have seen how the world end's up siding with Cinder and her master, that's not the world I want."

A dead silence filled the air between the two men, Roman waited for a response, while Jaune stood calmly thinking the pause persisted for long enough Roman lost his patience with the pause.

"How have I convinced you in the past? This can't be the first time this has happened!" Roman frowned when he was met with open vocal laughter.

"No, Roman, this right here is a unique meeting, you have never tagged along with my Semblance before."

"Wait really? We are enemies in every one of your lives I assume and this has never happened before? Or have you just not been through to many lives yet?"

"No, I'm pretty experienced with dying and starting over, but this has never happened before mostly because with a few rare exceptions we never interact much, your death comes naturally without me ever interfering with you!"

"Oh... well that's disappointing to learn."

Roman stood in silence, the conversation was not going anything like what he had hoped and was currently at a loss for what to say next thankfully Jaune made that choice for him.

"Amber? Are you the reason she's still alive?"

"Uh, sorry I don't recognize the name?"

"The Fall maiden?"

Roman stood there with a blank expression on his face for a moment before tentatively asking, "Brunette, carries a staff, pretty good in a fight?"

"That would be her."

"Then yes, we saved her, Cinder tried to use one of those creepy insect Grimm to take her powers."

"If you stopped her, how are you working for her, actually how are you even still alive?"

"As much as I enjoy this conversation, could we maybe go somewhere more comfortable as well as private?"

Roman indicated the now rising sun and the growing noise coming from either end of the alley as the city slowly came to life.

"Sure, Amber's life is enough to hear you out peacefully." Jaune placed his sword in its scabbard while quickly putting on the rest of his armor.

"Alright, let's go then."

"Not quite yet, Yang will want to be a part of this as well."

"So I was right, she is a time hopper with you too?"

"No, this is a first for that too, though, with the way we died and the reveal of your Semblance, I'm willing to bet Yang was just a happy accident." As Jaune talked he pulled out his scroll and began to dial.

* * *

Cinder looked at the last remaining member of White Fang leadership, he cut an impressive figure, tall and imposing with a deep voice, before she found him she was on the verge of losing control.

Adam Taurus was meant to be a valuable piece, unfortunately, she had not had the time to properly display the benefits of loyally following her, even with Roman's speed she was still far behind on plan's and didn't have the time to convince the Faunus.

The results had almost been almost unrecoverable, now though she sat across from her last option.

"Banesaw." Cinder spoke the name with a sneer. "No that won't do, I refuse to address you by such an idiotic name. Give me a real name it doesn't have to be your own just anything besides that!"

"... Patrick, ma'am."

Cinder smiled, happy to have a less idiotic name to call her newest henchmen.

"Patrick, ah that sound's so much better."

Cinder poured herself a glass of wine offering Patrick on as well which the Faunus looked at with a degree of distrust but accepted nonetheless.

"I'm sorry to say that your current misfortune is entirely my fault, had certain events not taken place I wouldn't have had to put your leader in such a position, it was never my intent to treat him or his followers with such... dismissal." She slowly walked behind the Faunus who sat as calmly as he could in his chair looking only at his glass of wine.

"I have plan's for Vale, plans that could have greatly helped Adam's cause, as part of his leadership you can see the potential benefit of what I have planned. Disrupting the world power's could only mean great things for the Fang and Faunus as a whole." She placed a hand on one of the Faunus's shoulders and leaned in against his other side.

"I will make you the offer I was going to give Adam when he was finished with his task. Commit yourself to my cause and the Fang will grow stronger than ever under your control!" Cinder pulled back and moved to stand in front of him.

' _Lllliiiiieeeeessss"  
_

Cinder ignored the disembodied voice, in private she would indulge herself in finding its secrets but in public, she strived to ignore it lest she look unhinged.

"I have no interest in controlling our growing the Fang, I guarded your Grimm for one reason only, you are strong enough to free Adam, you do that and I will vouch for you!" Patrick replied. He scrutinized the frown that crossed his hosts face, assuming she didn't care for his response.

"True It is within my power to collect your leader, but I don't see the incentive, he tried to run once, if his desire to have that Schnee wasn't so strong who knows he might have succeeded, you vouching on my behalf I doubt would earn me much." Cinder sighed and sat down finally taking a drink from her own glass. "How about this, I cannot trust Adam to follow my orders, so currently I have no reason to free him or frankly to bother keeping you alive, you are a loose end after all."

She smiled as the Faunus swallowed deeply at the clear threat.

"But that would be a waste. How about this, you rally what's left of the Fang under yourself, follow my instructions leading up to my final attack. You do this and during the attack, I will make one of my priorities to free Adam Taurus, is that acceptable?" She looked at the Faunus, the deal was a fair one, and forcing Beacon and Vale to waste time investing some defenses around Adam Taurus could only help her, anyone defending Adam and the prison would be less people protecting the tower.

"I don't like you, or trust you will keep your word, but you leave me little option, I decline and you kill me, I accept and if I survive I will have a chance to free Adam." With a slight nod Patrick agreed to Cinders offer and in the same motion brought the glass of wine to his lips and drained it in an instant.

"I figured you would." As she spoke Emerald entered the room. "Emerald will be sent to assist you as you as you gather together the Fang again."

Patrick took one look at the girl and sneered. "Her presence will only hurt recruitment!"

"Oh, no she won't be present, she is there to make sure Adam is." With a simple nod, Patrick looked at his own appearance, he hadn't felt any change himself but to look at his body he was clearly wearing different clothes he was sure if he had a mirror he would now resemble Adam Taurus.

"Now, Emerald will give you the details of your new job, I have other commitments to attend to." Placing her mostly unfinished glass down Cinder left the room retreating further into the gigantic warehouse Roman had procured for her.

Past rows of Dust containers and jars of Sap, she reached her destination, a small area set aside for a handful of cages, when the Alpha Grimm were first brought into the city there had been fifteen, now only a few days later only eight remained.

Her personal prisoner had given her a gift, while the beast still proved a distraction randomly speaking in her mind it had revealed either on purpose or accident, Cinder wasn't sure, the ability to control Grimm, So far that control only extend's to the most basic on Grimm and her instructions had to be kept painfully simple but it was a new ability that she was intent to plumb the depths of.

 _Now, which one should I try this time? Another Beowulf, perhaps an Ursa or maybe this poor lonely Boarbatusk._

Cinder walked past the cages holding the remaining Grimm staring at each intently.

 _'Nnooonnneeeeee, poinnnnttttllleeessss!'_

Cinder actually stopped, her prisoner never responded to her directly like that, even though she hadn't phrased it as a question to it, she felt it had been an answer.

 _Oh? Is it beyond my power to control any of these beasts?_

 _'Ouurrrssss!'_

 _Yes, fine, our power. Is it beyond 'our' power to control these?  
_

 _'Nnnnoooo, Mmeeetthhhhooodddd'_

Cinder paused at that, She had been trying to force the more powerful Grimm to submit much like had done with the mindless horde that encircled Forever Fall.

 _What is this method?_

 _'Ffrreeeddddoooommmmm'_

With the word, a new sensation flashed through Cinders mind, hazy images that she couldn't clearly make out in detail but that wasn't important because with the images came knowledge.

Not wanting to waste time Cinder sat on the floor marring her dress with dirt, closing her eyes she focused on the Grimm inside of her for the first time since she left Salem's home.

Inside her mind she now stood overlooking the Spider Grimm's prison, she smiled when it was in the same condition she had left it in, the instructions had been clear and the Grimm below her looked excited at the idea itself, or at least Cinder assumed it's fast, jittery movements, were ones of excitement.

Cinder pulled apart the Grimm's cage, expanding its area of influence slightly, as well as changing, mentally, how the prison functioned through the instructions.

No words were exchanged as Cinder worked, her prisoner was focused on exploring its new limits and in short order, Cinder left her own mind behind, as she vanished from her own mind the Golden Fortress distorted slightly.

The form of the structure stayed the same but it's golden sheen left with Cinder, now the structure looked bronze without the light, deep inside the structure the Grimm sat in its cell, the cell was covered in a dense web that bled through the edges of the cage, slowly creeping further into the fortress.

The Spider watched in fascination as Cinder exerted her new power, the Grimm itself felt its own power wane and wanted to feed but held itself back, instead as Cinder was focused on bringing a second Grimm under her control the Spider spread its web further, the increased flow of power between herself and Cinder allowed for her Web to encompass more, again she felt the pain of hunger as Cinder drew from her and this time she couldn't ignore the hunger it caused, ceasing her focus on her webs she instead sunk her fangs into Cinder mind and began to feed.

* * *

Yang was happy to be getting away from Beacon, the time between Jaune's departure and his call had been taxing, she had begun to focus on her surrounding more than herself and while the reactions from the students and staff were pretty limited there were a small number that feared her in the case of the students, the teachers were more subtle about her presence but she could feel them giving her occasional looks the went beyond checking to see if she wasn't up to any mischief.

When Jaune had called early into the morning with quick instructions to grab her gear 'just in case' and he would meet her by the landing platform in Vale she could barely calm herself.

Jaune hadn't given her any clear information aside from the quick message to bring her gear and he would explain more when he saw her. Of course, she had to still endure the time before the normal Bullheads that traveled between Beacon and Vale would start, but eventually, the time passed and she made her way to Vale and true to his word Jaune was standing nearby looking tired but otherwise much the same as he always did.

"How are you feeling Yang?"

"Better than you I warrant, I reflected on what you said and you were right. More importantly, you look tired 'again' you should really practice this little-known thing most people call sleep." Yang pointed out his obvious tired expression.

"Bah, I can sleep when I'm dead!" Jaune grinned at his joke glad to see that Yang smiled as well. "Anyways before we arrive I need to fill you in on a couple things."

She moved to keep pace with Jaune as he quickly recounted the story of what had happened to him over the night.

"So it's thanks to Roman that I got to tag along for another chance at life?"

"That seems to be the case, his Semblance plus the two of us being literally connected when we died was probably the perfect scenario for this to have occurred."

"That also means that repeating it would be impossible."

"Well I wouldn't say impossible Yang, but yeah, highly unlikely that's for sure."

Jaune led her through a side street and as they approached the building Roman had indicated where they would meet Jaune slowed his pace and turned to face Yang.

Yang paused as well and spoke before Jaune could. "Don't worry I'm not going to attack him."

"Well, I appreciate that it wasn't what I was going to say. This is our Roman, the same one from our last life, I know I made that clear already but just because he wants to stop Cinder and Salem now doesn't mean he isn't the same unhinged man who we fought multiple times."

Yang nodded understanding the seriousness all at once of dealing with this version of Roman, what made their Roman so frightening to face formerly was he had nothing left but revenge, he was focused and driven as well as fiercely intelligent and cruel. Now that same Roman was, here again, the product behind his revenge had been returned to him but neither Jaune or Yang knew how fiercely he would protect Neo.

The two pushed inside the plain looking building, the interior was as cramped as the outside made it appear but it also made it impossible for anyone to be hiding away to ambush them, as they entered and became accustomed to the light they both saw Roman sitting comfortably on a chair, one of four that surrounded a small circular table, Neo was present as well but instead of occupying a chair she sat cross-legged atop the table seemingly to Roman's annoyance as he would send her frequent looks.

The sight made Yang want to laugh but she fought back the urge, instead, she simply smiled at the weird scene as Juane and herself claimed free seats.

Seemingly not wanting to sit in the middle of the table any longer, Neo simple rolled perfectly from where she had been sitting to the last remaining empty chair in a feat of acrobatics and flexibility that made Yang envious.

When Jaune had first begun instructing her in using her legs more for fighting she had been adamant on adopting Neo's style, while Jaune though she would have been better off adopting another style he eventually relented and taught her to move as well as she could in Neo's style, Yang thought she was a pretty good copy of Neo at this point but with her little display Yang knew that was far from the truth.

Once everyone had a chair Jaune chose to speak first.

"Does Neo know what's really going on here?"

Yang could guess from the quizzical expression on the woman's face that first looked at Jaune before flipping quickly to stare at Roman.

"No, but I figured I would have to at some point and I guess now is as good of time as any."

The three people around the table quietly listened to Roman's story, how he worked alongside Cinder to undermine Vale, how everything they tried only met with limited success as Team RWBY and then later Team JNPR stood in Cinders way. The story moved forward to Cinders falling out with Roman, how she believe the criminal was betraying her when he failed to be captured during the events of Mountain Glenn, Roman had thought he had convinced her otherwise and a trap was laid to deal with Team RWBY and JNPR, what Roman learned after everything was done was that Cinder had created the trap not only to deal with the two teams but to also teach him a lesson.

Roman explained everything that was important leading up to the three's final day in their past life in the warehouse that claimed all three of their lives. He then went to expand upon how he made seemingly the correct decision leading forward from that point and how he accumulated so much money as well as expand on the reasons why he had agreed to work for Cinder even if he was never intending for her to achieve her goals.

As the story finished Yang hadn't realized how intently she had been listening she quickly looked at Jaune who was still sitting much the same as he had when Roman began his story but now deeper in thought, she then turned to Neo and wondered what her expression could mean.

She sat in her chair regarding Roman with a focused expression that didn't seem to relay any intent until suddenly she pushed off her chair knocking Roman over with the same action, Yang tried to stand for a moment to lend the man aid solely on reflex before being stopped by the scene from the floor.

Neo was straddling Roman chest and kneed the man's side every time he tried to push her off, her hands were making quick, rapid gestures that meant nothing to Yang but Roman appeared to understand and between trying to escape from underneath Neo was rapidly apologizing as well as promising the girl all kinds of treats and gifts to save himself.

Yang sat back with a sigh, clearly, Neo held no animosity towards Roman and was intent on simply extorting whatever she could while she had this opportunity.

Eventually the noise stopped and Neo let Roman up, she returned to her own seat wearing a smile that did not end, Roman, on the other hand, looked like he had just sold his soul to a devil and judging from Neo's expression Yang actually felt sorry for the criminal for the first time ever in either of her lives.

When Roman eventually crawled back into his chair the room fell to an uneasy silence only to be broken again by Jaune's voice.

"When you confronted Cinder to protect the Fall Maiden, do you remember where you were and the date?"

"Uh, Neo?" Roman looked to his accomplice who nodded her head to confirm. "A smart man you are, Neo will get you your location and date in the event you need to use it again or simply if you have no way to escape your fate."

Yang was surprised at how quickly Roman had understood Jaune's Semblance, he realized that no matter the outcome of this life Jaune was going to be stuck repeating this all again and freely offered information that would benefit Jaune in that eventual event.

"On top of that, I can tell you where Mercury lives before Cinder recruits him."

Yang having nothing to add currently sat and listen to a thorough exchange of information between Roman and Jaune, Roman didn't have all the answers to Jaunes seemingly endless barrage of questions but eventually, that came to an end and began the talk of how to deal with Cinder.

"She lacks any form of Maiden powers, couldn't the four of us overwhelm her even with Mercury and Emerald supporting her?" Yang asked the direct obvious question and Jaune nodded clearly thinking a simple answer might be the best.

"If you gave me that suggestion before she got back from her holiday too I assume her Masters home then yeah I would have been on board with you on that. Unfortunately, she came back stronger and well to put it frankly, broken or unhinged either word works. She is stronger than she was at this point in our last life though I don't think as powerful as after the Fall of Beacon but probably not by much."

"Stronger how exactly, also you said unhinged, like talking to no one?" Jaune leaned into the table with concern, he was familiar with many of Salem's weapons and their side effects.

"Her Semblance is stronger and when she uses it she emits a black smoke akin to what happens to a slain Grimm, and yeah talking to herself. Do you know what happened to her?" Now Roman leaned in as did Yang curious as to the source of Cinders new powers.

"She has killed herself is what happened, I should feel happy but this is actually quite bad, She had become a host for one of Salem's pets, which means this just got a whole lot worse for us!"

* * *

 **Hey three chapters in less than a week, well four if I count my other profile.  
**

 **The conversation between Roman, Neo, Yang, and Jaune will continue next chapter but I didn't feel the need to run this chapter long with the conversation.**

 **So, how many of you expected a fight, or at least a couple blows to be traded during their initial meeting in the alley?**

 **Also, oh no, a creature that is evil in also deceitful who would have guessed, I would say poor Cinder but really I don't like writing for her and at least the Grimm makes it enjoyable for me.**

 **Not much else I think.**

 **Not sure of the timing for my next update, I will be traveling next week for a wedding in England so I highly doubt between Jet lag, wedding stuff, and more jet lag from returning home I will get anything done but who knows.**

 **Follow / Favorite / Review**


	24. Chapter 24

"What do you mean worse?" Yang and Roman asked in unison, Neo, on the other hand, looked between all three of them then simply disappeared into another room.

"Well, I can't be entirely certain without seeing her in action but, Cinder might be host to a child of Lolth." Instead of expanding on what Lolth was Jaune sunk into his chair simply to stare off into space.

Yang looked at her partner with concern having never seen this reaction before, not even at their lowest points, he still focused on his goal, now though the will to fight or even speak appeared to flee from him.

"Hey, kid snap out of it, how bad is this? Does this mean Cinder is unkillable or something now?" Roman looked at the young man with concern as well, not getting a confident feeling from how he was reacting to Cinders new power source.

It took a moment but Jaune slowly came out of his stupor and when he did it wasn't with a fierce energy that surprised everyone present but it was with a lethargy that frustrated Roman and deeply concerned Yang.

"I... I have confronted hosts of Lolth before and I have never once survived the encounter. They attack with overwhelming power, even through aura I felt my bones break under attacks and that's only for the ones who fought in melee, the ones like Cinder who have powerful Semblances it's so much worse..." Jaune voice trailed off as he sunk into his chair again trying to ignore a memory of an encounter he tried repeatedly to change.

"So we have no hope of defeating her then? This has all been a waste of time?" Roman's jaw clenched tight, a long frustrated breath escaped his lips.

"We don't have to defeat her!" Jaune shook off the memory again, fighting to stay in the moment. "She is doomed, it will be many months before it will happen but the Grimm inside her will kill her."

"So we just stand back and wait for her to die?" Yang asked not expecting it to be that simple.

"Normally I would be satisfied with that but she deserves worse than her own inevitable death." Roman's expression quickly flipped to Neo who was returning from the other room carrying a bag of licorice, before turning back to face Jaune, wearing a smile that Jaune and Yang remembered well.

"As much as I want to sit back and not confront her, I doubt she will give us any option going forward. Eventually, all the hosts I saw, well the ones who didn't kill me anyways, would figure out that being a host was a death sentence, when this happened they all did one of three things. They might flee to the Grimm continent never to be seen again, some have approached their enemies looking for help, likely realizing Salem would never offer any, and the third is consume dust. Massive Dust consumption had managed to prolong some hosts lives as long as they had a constant supply."

Roman groaned and his head sank to the table. "Which she pretty much does at the moment."

"Speaking of which how have you been gathering Dust for her? there hasn't been a single robbery in Vale, at least not a reported one!"

Roman didn't bother to lift his head. "I'm sure if you looked back a couple months to Vacuo and Mistral's reports you would have your answer."

"So those robberies by Emerald were to pay smugglers, that's actually damn clever." Jaune smiled having albeit with a lot of help solved another mystery.

"If she might rely on the dust and you know where it is can't you contaminate it?" Yang asked again thinking of a simple solution.

"Not with the amount she has, plus only a handful of people know where it is stored, she already doesn't like me and if she's becoming unstable I would rather not be scrutinized further for problems with her Dust." Roman's head was still planted in the table while Jaune and Yang exchanged a quick look.

"That's fair, we can plan around the dust later, how about the Sap from Forever Fall, do you know what that is going to be used for?"

"Yeah, Mercury has been planting the stuff all over the Upper-Class district for day's now, they rigged all the bottles with some aerosol explosive device." Roman said finally raising his head from the table.

"Why attack the Upper-Class district? There is nothing important up there?" Yang turned to look at Jaune figuring he would likely know if there was.

"Not that I'm aware, that area is typically left ignored by Cinder." Jaune looked confused by Cinders plan as well. "On top of that there are no Grimm anywhere near the wall around the Upper-Class area, huntsmen are paid handsomely to keep that part of the wall particularly clear, those explosives will be wasted."

"Attacking the Upper Class isn't a bad idea, if the entire Vale Council feels threatened they will request additional security for themselves taking it away from other area's making future attacks far more damaging!" Roman spoke sounding annoyed that neither understood the significance of what the results of what an attack would cause.

"Still what would be the point of painting the district in Sap? That hardly seemed threatening, more along the lines of petty vandalism." Jaune could now understand the point of the attack, but still, couldn't understand how it would work.

"Jaune, what about the White Fang, they would always lead their attacks with waves of Grimm, what if that idea came from Cinder?"

"Yeah, but there are no Fang anymore."

"That's not entirely true." Yang and Jaune turned to look at Roman. "The one who likes to call himself 'Bandsaw' or something stupid like that escaped and Cinder has found him, as well as a collection of Alpha level Grimm the Fang, had apparently been capturing for her. She brought Bandsaw and the Grimm into the city I set them up in a huge Granary Warehouse in the Agriculture District."

"Okay, Alpha Grimm that's definitely an issue but we can handle that, if they were caught in Forever Fall its not like they are going to be actually dangerous types. If you can find out the day of the attack we could probably come up with a reasonable excuse to have at least our team and WNRR in the district."

As the day slowly passed the three talked in detail about a great many things eventually parting ways to allow Jaune and Yang to return to Beacon before the Bullheads stopped their regular traffic.

The two entered a street that was still busy with people but most appeared to be on the verge of finishing their day and heading home.

Jaune walked with his head down, thinking over much of what they had discussed trying to think of anything he might have forgotten to ask or would need clarification, Yang beside him also was deep in thought though for different reasons.

Jaune's reaction to Cinders assumed new power had been almost a sign of resignation, a feeling she had never once seen him express.

"Jaune, how bad is this Lolth?" Yang asked quietly as the two walked.

Snapping out of his thoughts Jaune looked at Yang.

"Lolth is, as far as I know, Salem's last resort, I have only encountered them in a handful of lives, and never so early." Jaune walked, his expression was one of concealed anger, not the same as she had worn for the past days, Jaune's anger seemed to be directed inward.

"You talked about fighting in melee was a punishing affair but you seemed still like yourself, that you could handle that, then you mentioned fighting someone with a powerful Semblance was so much worse. Have you fought Cinder like this before?"

"No, as far as I know, Cinder has never become a host before. The one's I fought..." Jaune trailed off his eyes losing focus for a moment. "...were Weiss and Winter, It was then I learned that hosts didn't have to be willing either, they certainly weren't, it might help the host survive longer but I digress, the two of them tore through a literal army of huntsmen all on their own, their Semblance ran wild and an army of White Grimm ended the best chance humanity had at beating Salem for good, it's actually one of the reasons I no longer try and build armies."

"Oh... that's not good... if these hosts are so powerful why doesn't Salem juts make an army of them and march them across the world?" She understood at least in a sense why Jaune was so intimidated by the Hosts but couldn't help thinking out loud.

"I couldn't tell you!" Jaune smiled his first one since learning of Cinder's power's, it wasn't much of one but it seemed to bolster himself. "I can tell you though is if you thought training on Patch was rough you are going to to hate me going forward we need to be at our best to fight a soon to be, mentally unstable pyromaniac."

Yang smiled "So are you actually going to try in sparring class's then or is this going to be more 'secret' training." Yang locked her arm in with Jaune's widening his smile and both of them relaxed, feeling some of their tension bleed away.

"I'm sure I could find some time for 'secret' training, but no I think I should see what I can do to help the others improve, god's knows were all going to need it!"

* * *

Team's ABYN and WNRR stood outside Glynda Goodwitch's classroom alongside the remainder of the first years, the class size was drastically reduced and everyone felt more aware of it now more than ever before, as currently the absent teacher was also added to the equation.

It was known by everyone at this point that Glynda was not likely to make a full recovery for many months.

The previous week's combat lessons had been canceled but this weeks had been left on the schedule meaning they had an instructor again.

The students waiting in the hall to be admitted could clearly hear sounds coming from inside the room it seemed to be a woman arguing with another person who didn't feel the need to raise his or her voice in response.

To those listening in the hall, the argument seemed to finish when with a loud masculine 'FINE' before the door swung open and the students were permitted to enter and find seats.

Once everyone had taken their seats a figure Jaune recognized as well all the members of Team ABYN excluding Blake and Team WNRR took the stage.

"Greetings students, I am Amber Bailey, I will be filling in for Glynda for the foreseeable future. I, unfortunately, will only be teaching a portion of the class, unlike Ms. Goodwitch who was more than capable of handling the teaching and critique of all your combat abilities I am not, I will be the instructor in charge of helping to improve those of you who rely more on ranged combat."

The class stared with curiosity at their new teacher who appeared only a handful of years older than them, she appeared quite eager to have her position as well.

"Professor Bailey? Who will be instructing the close combat lessons then?"

"Ruby, correct?" Amber confirmed who she was speaking to before continuing, and with a small nod from the reaper, she continued. "Your close combat instructor hasn't been decided yet but until then my 'chaperone' has graciously accepted the position until then." Amber lingered on the word chaperone for longer than needed and indicated a corner of the room that previously looked unoccupied to see a very disgruntled looking Qrow Branwen who quite clearly looked like he wanted to be anywhere else.

The entire room turned to stare at the new figure who seemed to want to sink deeper into the corner if that was at all possible, his discomfort increasing when Ruby loudly shouted his name.

Yang and Jaune only gave Qrow a passing glance, both were more curious about Amber, Jaune had never actually interacted with her before but already was finding her to be a pleasant person, in Forever Fall she took her task seriously, and now to volunteer to teach showed an interest in helping others improve as well, Yang noticed something else entirely, Amber was teasing Qrow and Her Uncle who never lost in that regard appeared to be losing to her, and beyond that when Amber though the entire room focused on Qrow, her gaze as well, while others looked at Qrow with interest, Amber's eyes held a mixture of respect and mischief.

Yang was familiar with the look because it was the same one she wore when dealing with her Uncle since coming back, but while she had never managed to get the upper hand on her uncle yet, Amber seemed to know the real way to get under his skin and she intended to learn how.

Qrow seemed to have lost his patience with the stares and took to his feet moving to stand beside Amber on the stage, but leaving a visible gap between the two which Amber immediately closed only to have Qrow attempt to move away but remembering the students instead planted his feet firmly and dealt with the younger womans frustrating behaviour.

"Okay, first up..." Qrow to distract everyone present from his own miserable existence and to give himself a moment's peace to indulge in his flask quickly scanned the crowd only knowing a few students names. his eyes spotted his two Nieces, Jaune, the miniature Ice Queen and after that, he had no idea. "... Yang against Jaune!" The match decided Qrow left the stage followed closely by Amber and the two took up Glynda's usual position, Qrow looking miserable and Amber smiling pleasantly, no one was quite sure why though.

* * *

Jaune and Yang exchanged a glance, they had been sitting next to each other.

"Lowkey this or...?" Yang asked as they walked to the stage.

Jaune looked around the room, he had been intending to show off a little bit going forward to help his opponents but Yang didn't need that, he quickly weighed the options he had.

"You know what, bring everything you got!"

The two split apart and took opposite sides of the stage, Yang had been surprised but wore an excited smile, Jaune stood relaxed on his side wearing a grin.

Instructions were repeated and a slow timer began counting down to when the fight would start.

Yang deployed Ember Celica and took her stance watching Jaune with interest, he asked for everything she had and she intended to do just that.

As the countdown finished she launched herself at Jaune hard, she knew catching him off guard was impossible at least not with an opening, to much distance between them gave him to much time to plan, in close he would be forced to act and react on a moments notice, it wasn't much but it would give her a chance.

She lashed out with a series of powerful punches alternating arms trying to force him to create a blind spot but Jaune just circled the stage with her.

Spinning after another dodged punch Yang planted a gauntlet against the ground propelling herself forward with an unmatchable speed and driving her knee hard into Jaunes chest.

Jaune fell back hard from the attack falling to a knee but bringing his blade forward to fend off her follow-up attack, which she had been in the midst of launching another knee to connect with his head.

Recovering from her thwarted follow up she looked at Jaune, his expression was one of pain but his sapphire eye's glinted with approval, Yang watched as Jaune shortened the grip on his blade and moved his heavy armguard in front of himself, She knew this stance well it was Jaune's personal style honed from lifetimes of work and it meant Jaune was about to be serious.

* * *

 _Damn, she landed that_ _clean_.

Jaune stood against Yang, the first hit had gone to her and it had been a strong one, while he fended off her follow up he quickly glanced at his scroll checking his remaining Aura, he was pushed half way to critical with one blow, he hadn't been showing off or being cocky it had honestly surprised him.

Now he stood across from her in his own stance.

 _Her growth has been phenomenal, she was always one of the best, I said bring everything and it might cause me some grief with Ozpin, but I need the attention of the others if I want them to come my way from training tips or suggestions._

Jaune watched as Yang rushed him again, this time the distance was much shorter and she crossed it in a heartbeat, as Yang swung he responded, her momentum and punch left a tiny opening that he capitalized on.

Jaune tackled Yang, even with her momentum boosted by her gauntlets he had driven his shoulder into her stomach, canceling her rush out and driving the air from her body, with a roll off her prone form he disengaged before his stunned opponent had any ideas of maybe grappling him.

Quick to his feet, he was impressed with Yang though, he had felt the grab happen a moment too late and his opponent reached her feet at almost the same instant he did albeit, Yang looked to be struggling to catch her breath.

She didn't let up, punch's reinforced with blasts from Ember Celica forced him back and away, or that was her intent, Jaune soaked the attacks his armguard cushioning the attacks and allowing him to swing his blade at her, Crocea Mors bit deeply into her aura forcing her back, Jaune gave her no time though he followed her every step breaking her counter attacks, and relentlessly pressuring her.

Jaune knew the fight wasn't flashy, his style was simple and brutal and for the first time Yang was experiencing what it was to fight him seriously with his own style, he could only guess what she was thinking but he wasn't sure he wanted to know as a painful wave fo heat erupted from Yang, her Lilac eye's now crimson red.

Jaune didn't retreat, the heat hurt for a moment but he endured it, giving Yang space with her Semblance was a good idea for most opponents, force the powerhouse to telegraph attacks from meters away was a good option, not for him though as he kept the fight close, gritting his teeth he kept up his flurry of attack's putting his sword arm first and turning to present as small a target as he could for her punch's as even a graze right now could possibly end the match.

* * *

The spectators were in awe of the contest, from Yang's powerful leap in, the forceful knee that dropped Jaune and then the seeming turn around, no one in the crowd expected Jaune to be able to stand against a champion tournament fighter let alone be the one pressuring her as the fight continued.

Ruby watched the fight in awe, always amazed at how powerful and skilled her sister was, when Qrow had called both her sister and Jaunes name she expected a boring fight like the two would do back in her father's class at Signal but this was something else, she sat quietly and watched not wanting to miss a single move.

Pyrrha watched the encounter with rapt fascination, any chance she had to watch Yang fight was always a treat, her style seemed to change depending on how skilled she viewed her opponent. Pyrrha had only seen Yang deploy her weapon a couple of times since combat lessons at Beacon began and that was typically to end an encounter, the one time Yang had started a fight with her weapon deployed was against herself during their mutual last match before attending Beacon. Now though Yang had not only deployed her weapon but was appearing as the fight lasted longer to be losing, Pyrrha felt the heat from Yang's Semblance wash over the room and expected the fight to end moments later with Jaune being sent flying off the stage as her team leader pushed his attack, instead Jaune remained in close managing to avoid everything the brawler sent his way.

Weiss had fought Jaune herself the encounter had been frustratingly unsatisfying and she had been awarded the win which she felt was undeserved, he never showed any real skill in combat lessons, even with Ruby vouching for him as being very skilled, claiming he just didn't like showing off, she began to think Jaune was nothing, the events of Forever Fall changed that when he had come to her rescue, Jaune had not only shown he was as skilled as Ruby claimed he was but possibly many more times that what Ruby even knew.

Weiss had been treated to lessons with private instructors who could be considered some of the best on Remnant, the Faunus named Adam would have given her instructors issues though, his strength and apparent Semblance would have evened their fights, Jaune had dwarfed Adam though, the fight had been so one sided she had begun to think she might have imagined the whole thing. With what she was witnessing on the Stage in front of herself right now though she had no doubts that Jaune was some form a genius.

Qrow knew the kid trained Yang, he had admitted it himself when he had finally got fed up with Ozpin's surveillance assignment and confronted the two of them, not that that changed anything, Jaune still half-assed his way through fights at Signal and would typically lose. When he had chosen the two to fight he wanted more than just a distraction from his own 'personal' problem at the moment he wanted to watch the kid get swatted around by his niece, Yang wouldn't ever seriously hurt the guy but every blow Jaune took would have made him smile.

The fight was beyond his expectations, Yang fought all out and although her smile was ever-present his niece was fighting like a huntsman, not a kid trying to look flashy, Yang landed the first hit and it had been a solid one took the kid to his knee, he had the presence of mind to fend off the follow up but Qrow didn't expect the fight to last much longer let alone to turn around as it had, Jaune had adopted a 'unique' stance and pushed his niece back, even after activating her semblance Yang was still losing badly.

* * *

Jaune was sweating, the heat radiating from Yang during this spar was sapping his stamina faster than anything else, in all their fights in the forests of Patch she had never lasted this long when she started using her Semblance, the air around him hurt to breathe and his entire body was coated in sweat but he refused to back off, the wall of heat was causing no actual damage to him or his aura so he persisted.

Due to his fencer like stance, his options were sorely limited, if he had a lighter blade or a longer reach he might have whittled enough of Yang's Aura away to end this fight but as it stands his blade lacked reach and was too heavy for the precise movements needed for fencing. Loathe as he was to expose more of his body to the brawler he batted away her newest punch with his blade and switched stances to something new.

Jaune reversed his grip on his blade holding the behind him and his heavy armguard in front again, using the momentary confusion apparent on Yang's face he rushed the few feet separating them and lashed out with a strong kick, which landed on Yang's guard as she had barely brought her arms together and braced for the attack.

Without wasting an instant Jaune kicked off the floor with his other leg and drove it hard into Yangs exposed side, landing on his side Jaune twisted hard and swept the feet of his stunned opponent sending her to the ground, continuing with the sweep Jaune twisted to his feet bringing his sword around on his stunned opponent, Yang had no hope of recovery and not wanting to actually harm her with his blade maybe cutting through her weakened aura Jaune stopped his swing well before it was anywhere near hitting her, instead he graciously offered Yang a hand up which she accepted with a smile.

So focused on the fight now that it was over both realized how quiet the rest of the room was, where the others sat no one moved or spoke each was transfixed by the fight, well almost all Jaune noticed that Blake seemed again distracted.

"Shall we continue?"

"No, I concede." Yang placed her hand over her scroll and on the large screen above them it silently announced Jaune Arc the victor. Yang moved to stand next to Jaune as they lined up for critique from their instructors only to find both Qrow and Amber staring at them speechless as well, though to Qrow's credit and probably more so his uncomfortable appearance he quickly took the initiative.

"Well done both of you!" he congratulated both to buy himself time to think of any way to critique the fight or offer suggestions but he couldn't, Ozpin and his council of secret muckity mucks had made him one of their top operatives based on many reasons, one of them was his fighting ability, yet now he stood before two teenagers and feeling very unconfident if he could best either of them in a fight particularly Jaune.

The silence as they two waited for any form of critique went long and Qrow was simply going to dismiss them to the stands but Amber stepped up beside Qrow again standing too close for his preference. "I'm sure Ms. Goodwitch could critique such a fight moments after completion but forgive us, we are new to this and we will have to review the footage of the fight, we will be doing this for all spars, at least for the time being!" Amber spoke loud enough for the entire room to hear, feeling much the same in being unable to find any flaw in how the two had fought, particularly Jaune aside from the early hit he took he had proven to be a beyond capable fighter.

Qrow looked towards Amber and almost thanked her before seeing her watch him her eyes dancing with mischief, he immediately changed what he was going to say. "Amber please select our next two participants!" With that Qrow turned away quickly and discretely emptying his flask down his throat and settled in for what felt like was going to be a very long day!

As Amber chose the next two combatants Jaune and Yang took their seats the surrounding ones were quickly occupied the remaining members of Team ABYN and Team WNRR, Jaune was surprised to see Blake move closer but figured Pyrrha had something to do with it.

The two sat and listened happily to the praise and questions that bombarded them throughout the remainder of the class both temporarily forgetting some of their mutual worries as they enjoyed the moment!

* * *

 **Back from England and must say 'BEAUTIFUL' country I had an absolute blast.**

 **That being said I think my liver is about to die, I don't know how many readers I have from there but how do you guys drink so much, I know I was over there for a wedding so the drinking was probably inflated but I digress.**

 **So Lolth eh! More DnD references, ah well it's one of my favorite pass times and I needed a name for Salem's spider minions and I figured those of you who were familiar with the Tabletop would get the reference.**

 **So, Ambers last name was taken from her voice actor before anyone tries to tell me she never had a last name in the show.**

 **All in all not much went on in this chapter, the conversation between Roman, Yang, Jaune, and Neo had a few interesting moments and gives a good lead up to the event that will replace the dock's battle from Season one.**

 **Hmm... what else!**

 **Jaune and Yang's fight had initially been longer but I honestly felt bad for how much punishment Yang took so I cut out a large portion of it.  
**

 **What about Qrow and Ambers deal, at the suggestion of a personal friend who also enjoys RWBY and my story she told me to put the two together as often as possible and make Qrow miserable at the same time. I liked the mental Image and while I have plans for both of them down the line I had very little leading up to that point and this just genuinely makes me happy to write.**

 **All in all a fairly light chapter compared to everything recently which I think I the story needed.**

 **Anyways lemme know what ya think.**

 **Follow / Favorite / Review**

* * *

 _It had taken a couple dozen lives of trial and error to reach this point and while there had been losses he had never been this close before._

 _It took four years since the Fall of Beacon to reach this point every time and even he was getting tired of the repetition._

 _Jaune had started building this army over many lives but only in the last few had they really gained anything._

 _Vacuo, Mistral, Atlas, and Menagerie stood united against Salem and her legions of Grimm, the War was far from over, Grimm were an endless existence and on the Grimm continent it was beyond that at times they were thick as weeds and others they spent days without spotting anything._

 _Jaune looked at the command tent, while he was through a very convoluted and annoying series of actions responsible for the formation of this army no one actually knew it, well that's not entirely true Ozpin or Oscar knew, but much like how Jaune kept the details of his Semblance a secret so too did Ozpin._

 _Thinking of Ozpin/Oscar Jaune turned to look at the young man who was currently sitting with Ruby, Jaune wondered how much of Ozpin actually remained within Oscar but gave up caring pretty quickly, Ruby was happy with the young man and considering how much Oscar reminded Jaune of himself when he began this whole thing he doubted Ozpin was coaching the young man, probably just leaving anything that happened to fate, though it didn't stop Qrow who knew Ozpin/Oscars secret from being a very frustrated and angry uncle._

 _Next he looked to Ren and Nora, the two were anchor's to him no matter how bad things got they always remained the same, particularly Nora, though now she looked positively radiant, Jaune knew the secret behind that, she was pregnant, only the beginning stages and while both Ren and himself had tried to talk her out of joining the war Nora was much too stubborn not to, Jaune and Ren stood beside her in every fight putting themselves in the path of any Grimm that might get too close to her._

 _Next he looked at Blake and Sun, the two were, much the same Jaune was actually impressed that Blake's eye hadn't rolled out of her skull for how much she did the action at her husband, who Jaune believed said or did the things he did because he loved his wife's reaction, because with every roll of her eye's she always smiled as a finish._

 _Next he would have looked to Weiss or Yang but both ladies weren't present, Yang was now leader of Team RWBY and actually was Vale's representative on the War Council, Weiss was absent as well as Winter to deal with their traitorous brother Whitley, the bastard Third Child of Jacque Schnee had poisoned his mother, and Murdered his father and seized control of the S.D.C. and of all things aligned himself with Salem._

 _It had been at the outset of the invasion that the two Schnee sisters left and there had been no word from either of them since, that wasn't actually surprising, communication on the Grimm continent was terrible at best so to reach someone off it was probably impossible._

 _Bringing his mind back to himself Jaune looked down at his weapon as he finished his maintenance, Miló and Akoúo̱_ _shone brilliantly and quickly cycling through its various forms to make sure all the gears were set right he sheathed them, Jaune knew the weapon wasn't the real_ _Miló and Akoúo̱ it was actually a copy made especially for him by Hectur Nikos, A gift after bringing his daughter's killer to justice, but also a replacement for his own lost weapon._

 _Leaving the area he went to find some food, he was actually one of the first to spot the wave of White Grimm appear on the horizon, the attack came at twilight the white forms of the Grimm blended into the horizon allowing them to get dangerously close to the army before being spotted.  
_

 _The alarm was raised and Huntsmen rushed to engage with the odd colored Grimm, the first wave of the Grimm even having caught the army off guard was wiped out in an instant but from seemingly thin air everywhere around the camp more and more White Grimm appeared in numbers that dwarfed the army of huntsmen._

 _The fight was brutal, for every Grimm Jaune took down another just took its place and to top it off there were scattered reports of two humanoid looking Grimm that wielded Dust somewhere on the battlefield._

 _He desperately wanted to find those two Grimm, they might be the Alpha's behind this attack, killing them could end this in a moment._

 _The fight dragged on but slowly the sounds of fighting, both Huntsman weapons, and Grimm slowly died away, Jaune couldn't spare time to wonder why no one was coming to his aid, if the fighting was dying down and he wasn't being swarmed it meant the army had won, he just needed to hold out until help came his way hopefully before he ran out of either stamina or Aura._

 _Help never came though, Jaune died pierced from behind by a weapon he thought he recognized._

 _Jaune shot up from his bed instinctively reaching to his chest, thirteen years old again and not exactly sure what had happened, he resolved himself to remember that army of White Grimm and be ready for it this attempt as he gathered his belongings as he quietly left his families home._

* * *

 **I think I might enjoy these side lives a little too much!**

 **Anyways asking for suggestions from you guys on what you might like to see in one of Jaunes past lives, I'm feeling a little fan servicey!**


	25. Chapter 25

"Assign ANYONE else! Please! You know my track record with partners, this is only ever going to end badly and you know it!"

Qrow sat in Ozpins office, he wasn't offered the chair nor the alcohol he had appropriated for himself but Ozpin knew better than to argue with the man, particularly in this case when Qrow was right.

"I will not accept anyone but Mr. Branwen, he is your most trusted Agent after all!" Amber spoke serenely openly enjoying the discomfort she elicited from her Chaperone.

"Pah, most trusted Agent hardly, she is..." Qrow looked away, "Look, kid, I'm not looking to get out of this for my sake... well not entirely my sake. The longer people are around me the more likely my Semblance is gonna end up getting you hurt or worse."

"Oh yes, your vaunted bad luck Semblance. The way I see it your good luck for me, if you hadn't shown up when you did even with the others help I probably wouldn't have survived that fight, only when you showed up did they flee." Amber folded her arms asking for any kind of rebuttal, this was a conversation that has happened multiple times and she refused to be swayed.

"Qrow, she chose you and as much as you don't want this it is the way it must be, at least until we discover who was behind the attack." Ozpin looked at Qrow who simply grumbled into his glass which Ozpin took as the man conceding to his role again begrudgingly. "However, Qrow will be exempt from being present during your combat class, After reviewing the footage from today, though nothing serious occurred I can already see how his Semblance affected more than a few of the fights. Until such time as a suitable substitute is found I will fill in personally with you in combat lessons, I hope that is acceptable." Ozpin looked at Amber as who nodded in concession, seeing no real reason to disagree with the Headmaster.

"Good, now if you will excuse us Amber, I would like to have a word in private with Qrow." Both men watched as the Maiden politely nodded and left the two alone, her absence was filled with Qrow pouring himself another glass from the Headmaster's private stock. "Pour one for me would you Qrow." Ozpin accepted the glass and took a seat opposite his companion.

"So, when is my backup arriving?"

"Barring any interruption, Winter and her unit will be arriving in Vale the start of next week and I will have all available Vale huntsmen we can spare here as well by the end of that week also, the operation to clear out the horde of Grimm around Forever Fall will take place on the weekend to allow the Beacon and Signal staff to participate as well."

"Jeez that's an awful lot of Huntsmen Oz, I know the horde is concerning, I've seen it first hand but these many Huntsmen out of the city all at once, what if this is just a distraction for another attack inside Vale?" Qrow knew they needed everyone capable to defeat the horde, even as much as he disliked Atlas he knew when to accept their help but he couldn't help himself being a cynic always expecting the worst, his Semblance forced himself to accept that reality quite often.

"Both myself and James are of the same mindset as you, we won't be leaving either Beacon or Vale entirely undefended, Oobleck and Port will be remaining at the School, several third Year teams that have proven their mettle will be informed of events and will be placed around Vale's Wall to bolster defence's while the senior huntsmen are away."

"If you are using the Students I could think of a few second and first-year teams that could probably help as well, I've seen enough in one day of Combat class's that if you want help in the forest and maybe free up some proper huntsmen for the city defense."

"I assume you are referring to Teams CVFY, ABYN, WNRR?" A simple nod answered his question. "I find it hard to disagree with you, particularly in Team CVFY's case, they are as well-balanced a team Beacon has had in years and I don't just mean that in combat roles, the four work together better than most teams that have been together much longer. I will certainly add them to the teams defending Vale." Ozpin glanced at his drink for a moment contemplating it. "As for the first year Team's I would rather not expose them to 'This' kind of encounter so early, they have already survived through one terrible event, I feel we should spare them from another so soon!"

Both men looked into their cups remembering similar but distinctly different events that they wish the could be forgotten.

Qrow finished his drink and paid his farewells for the evening to Ozpin who remained seated having barely touched his drink during the time the two men talked, as the door closed behind Qrow he reached for a tablet and found the video feed of Jaune and Yang's spar again, taking a sip of the alcohol he eased back in his chair and watched the fight again.

Jaune had fought flawlessly, altering his stances as the fight dictated. He was caught off guard only once, Ozpin wasn't disparaging on Yang's ability he had actually attended Ms. Nikos and her final competitive fight and understood how skilled both women were. Jaune was beyond that level though, being hit by the knee seemed to be just a product of bad luck, another reason why he agreed to have Qrow away from the Combat lessons as he intended to push Jaune, if the boy was able to overwhelm Yang, he wanted to see how he handled multiple opponents.

* * *

Yang watched in satisfaction as the roles were reversed, she sat calmly eating her lunch away from the commotion that surrounded Jaune as students asked him barrages of questions.

She turned to her only companion currently, Blake sat across from her, not interested in Jaune one bit or the conversation, instead, she was slowly eating her lunch as she looked through her Scroll no doubt trying to appear casual. If Yang hadn't been through a life with her once before she might have even bought the act, Blake wasn't to the point where she had become both mentally and physically exhausted yet.

She wanted to ask Blake what was bothering her even though she assumed she knew the answer, bringing up the topic out of nowhere was not likely to get the results or reaction she wanted so instead she allowed the two to sit in silence and enjoy their meals.

Gradually the crowd around Jaune began to disperse and Pyrrha moved to join them wearing a smile like no other.

"Careful Pyrrha, I might get jealous if I see you wearing a smile like that after coming back from talking with my man!" Yang winked at the redhead who immediately flushed, but the smile didn't diminish one bit.

"It's not what you think. Jaune has agreed to spar with me next time there is a chance available in combat lessons!" Pyrrha quickly explained the reason behind the smile, not wanting to cause any issues between the happy couple.

"Oh," Yang put on a pouty face. "And her I was hoping Jaune had invited you to our 'personal' session" Yang lingered on the word long enough that the context had no chance of being lost on the redhead who's flush deepened to a degree that her face almost matched her hair and she began to sputter and choke on whatever she was attempting to say in her defence for a good minute while Yang having got the reaction she desired just smiled at her partner and with a wink returned to her meal.

Blake watched this whole interaction and for as distracted as she was still smiled and rolled her eyes at the blonde's antics, she briefly thought about stepping in for Pyrrha's sake but chose to remain on the sidelines as to not be drawn into Yang's twisted idea of humor. Instead, she busied herself with her Scroll looking for any news on the events of Forever Fall, Adam, and the unaccounted Faunus 'Banesaw'.

If not for the capture of Adam during the events as well as the need to house a large amount of prisoners and wounded she was certain the entire event would have been downplayed even more than it already was, not that she was against such a thing, the actions of Adam and his followers were reprehensible and should be seen as separate from what the Fang was truly about, equality, not superiority or revenge which is what Adam's group had eventually become, just another of the many reasons she had left when the opportunity arose.

News of the event was already a thing of the past, nothing new to be said or discovered or at least not being release to a new source. With Adam captured though and Banesaw on the loose she kept waiting for the eventual story or blurb about his inevitable attack to free his leader. The attack never came though, she knew Banesaw well enough that the large Faunus wouldn't wait overly long, he would attack as soon as he saw an opportunity and from what she had found out, his window of opportunity was rapidly closing.

Due to Adam's injuries as well as blood loss and Aura exhaustion he was being held at a hospital that deals specifically with huntsmen, being full of retired or recovering huntsmen meant the building was quite formidable to access, but also due to its strong inhabitants had not real form of unified security apart from the few assigned to watch Adam in case he attempts anything.

No news was good news, at least currently, she put aside her scroll to begin eating her lunch only to find her plate missing and a very suspicious looking Nora nearby with a collection of empty plates that may or may not belong to her, before Blake could even scowl at the energetic girl Ren simply walked past her and placed a fresh plate in front of her and nodded in apology before walking away carrying several other plates, while still annoyed with the girl with the plate replaced and on top of that being warm again she had little to complain about as she began eating.

Weiss looked at the crowd around Jaune and tried to ignore it, she wanted a moment alone with the Swordsman, but finding a chance had been impossible so far so many people wanted to discuss his fight that he hadn't been alone since the class the previous day, she had struck upon the idea just to send him a message on his scroll but realized belatedly she had never bothered to get his information, she had briefly considered asking Ruby knowing her partner had it but after a thought of the consequences one of them being Yang finding out and jumping to conclusions she chose instead to wait and for every minute that passed by she became more frustrated with her choice, Schnee's weren't made for waiting.

"You should stop being patient, everyone who was spoken with Jaune has come away with a grin though for how aghast Pyrrha was a moment ago I think she wished she could not smile, no doubt my sister's awful sense of humor, what I wouldn't give for an awful pun or two again." Ruby spoke seemingly almost whimsically about a brief period of time when her sister adopted their father's awful sense of humor, for awhile Yang had been spouting puns as often and frequently as she could then one day it all just stopped, replaced with a more, mature, humor.

"No, I'm content to wait!" _Especially to save myself from Yang's vulgar sense of humor in regards to her boyfriend._ "Besides in a matter of hours he has lost most his followers, another day and I will be able to find a moment to corner him and ask him some questions that he might not be inclined to answer in public anyways." Weiss frowned at the statement, it's context sounding wrong to her own ears, she blamed that on Ruby's choice of topics being Yang's sense of humor. "What about you, from what I have heard from you that's the first time you have ever seen him go all out yet you haven't approached him either!"

"OH, I don't need to, perks of knowing him for so long, I have his number. Besides he is already kind of my unofficial tutor, more than a few of my moves are basically because of him pointing out flaws in how I fought, though I had to figure out how to fix them on my own, Uncle Qrow helped too." Ruby added as an afterthought almost.

"Speaking of your Uncle, I thought you said he was a teacher at Signal yet he was with the Team that came during Forever Fall and now Professor Bailey kept referring to him as her Chaperone, he also looks miserable, is he always like that?"

"Miserable? Hmm... yeah pretty much, though normally it more brooding miserable, this was something like uncomfortable miserable."

The table buzzed with multiple conversations as Yang finished her lunch and decided that as much as she hated to be the one to rescue Jaune they had an appointment to keep and while she could handle it herself being alone with Neo even if it was for only a few minutes the diminutive woman gave her the chills.

"Sorry, ladies and gentlemen but I'm stealing Jaune!" Yang spoke with a smile that meant something else and the group quickly dispersed allowing Yang and Jaune a brief kiss to hammer home the point so that they wouldn't be followed and the two left the cafeteria and once out of sight quickly made their way through the school.

"Enjoyed that did you?"

"A little bit yeah, though I have to admit you enjoyed it just enough that I wasn't really the same experience I had at Signal!"

"True, though you did time it just right that I'm going to be skipping lunch today I guess, you could have met with Neo on your own you know, I mean she's just here to deliver a couple Scrolls and a few other things Roman whipped together for us." As the two quickly moved through the halls a couple apples materialized, Jaune wasn't sure where Yang had hidden them but he had didn't say anything just accepted them and bit into one as they kept moving eventually reaching the rendezvous point.

Standing impatiently in one of the schools many gardens was Neo, at her feet a bag containing several things, most important was a set of Scrolls unlocked and modified to allow additional functions beyond even Jaune knew how to modify.

Seeing that the recipients of the package had arrived Neo barely gave them a moment's glance before turning away with the intent of leaving immediately only she stopped, suddenly curious of the two as they approached clearly enjoying each others company as they arrived smiling. Neo trusted them only because Roman trusted them, she wasn't entirely sure what to make of the whole time traveling Semblance nonsense but it did explain many on Roman's inconsistencies in personality and decisions over the past years.

She watched the two with keen eyes, taking in their every action so she could appraise them better than she had bothered to when they met with herself and Roman. Yang while trying to act, she assumed normal or casual, sent multiple glances her way seemingly uncomfortable around herself, though not the level of discomfort Neo usually earned from others who knew her it was enough to be genuine. Jaune, on the other hand, seemed to only look at her once curiously, before ignoring her presence and instead reached for the bag.

Neo didn't appreciate the look of apparent dismissal and quickly swung her parasol around both swatting Jaune's hand away from the bag and hooking a handle and dragging it closer to herself, she stood smiling, waiting to see the look she desired.

The look didn't come instead Jaune simply smiled and reached into a pocket, pulling out a piece of paper he had prepared earlier he tossed it to herself.

' **Corner of Faust and 3rd, White Building, Pink roof. Ask for Gelato, that's a treat, not someone's name.'** **  
**

After reading the brief note she smiled warmly at Jaune and in one smooth motion she flick the bag his way and vanished in an instant, curious to trying this new treat, and believing him to be a time traveler a little bit more since he didn't even hesitate to offer her something she would consider potentially valuable in exchange for the bag, though he would regret it if this 'Gelato' wasn't something delicious.

* * *

"What did you give her that made her handing over the bag so easy?"

"Oh, just an address to a place that serves a specialty ice cream I know she hasn't tried yet." Jaune responded off hand as he dug through the bag quickly retrieving its entire contents, a pair of Scrolls each marked to indicate who's each was, Jaune handed Yang hers and flipped through the other items, a couple of well made ID's that Jaune doubted they would need to use but figured they wouldn't hurt to have, a long list of times and dates Jaune had asked for that Roman had accumulated from two separate lives, Jaune looked at this for a moment before taking a quick picture with his new Scroll before tucking it away deep in one of his pockets, he would spend time later memorizing the information.

Lastly in the bag was a couple of Lien cards that neither he nor Yang asked for but there was a note attached that simply said have fun and besides that how much was loaded on the cards, the amount was fairly impressive and it gave Jaune an idea or two but quickly thought better than frivolously wasting the extra funds on unnecessary things.

"Well that was short and sweet, I guess were off to Oobleck's next for class's?" Yang knew the destination and both of them groaned in unison, Yang detested the methodical pace of her first life and now on her second she struggled to pay any attention to the fast speaking Doctor Professor, Jaune on the other hand when she spared to look at him during the lessons and lectures looked to be in a trance, physically present but his mind absent, likely to save his sanity from painfully repetitive lessons.

"Who know's maybe something exciting will happen."

Oobleck's class was let out and the students filed out in varying degree's of dazed stupors. Having Oobleck to finish a day meant a mountain of homework and very little ambition to actually do any of it but forcing yourself none the less as it would be due the following lesson.

As per usual most every student turned to the library to complete Oobleck's homework, while Jaune didn't really need the library to complete it, it was simply easier to follow the group and do it there as opposed to anywhere else so he followed the crowd and sat with his team as they found a free table in the library.

Jaune would always quickly finish his work ahead of anyone else and spend the rest of his time talking with his team, this time though he had seen Weiss approach him immediately after he had closed his books, guessing her topic of conversation to be about their fight or his and Adam's fight in the forest and not particularly wanting to have either or both conversations he looked for any distraction.

No distraction was present however, everyone was focused on their homework, Jaune locked eyes with Weiss for a moment, her eyes were narrow slits as if daring him to make a move to try and escape from her while he was sure his own were a mixture of annoyance and resignation that he was going to be forced to hear her out.

Jaune sunk into his chair and accepted his fate, though that didn't mean he had to be a willing participant.

"Jaune Arc, may I have a word with you in private?"

"Nah I'm alright here, comfy and everything." Jaune smiled and slouched lower into the chair, attempting to make the hard wooden library chairs appear comfortable.

Weiss stared at Jaune for a moment not exactly sure how to proceed, she assumed it would be easy to get him away from others to ask her questions, she hadn't expected him to or anyone really to bother to resist such a simple request.

"Jaune, you shouldn't dismiss the request, who knows this could be the start of something 'Interesting'!"

Jaune looked at Yang, fully betrayed by her, his only saving grace was the usually composed Weiss pinked slightly at Yang's comment, nowhere near the level Pyrrha reached but Jaune figured her slight embarrassment, as well as his knowledge that he could only avoid her so so long anyways, had earned her her private conversation.

"You make a great point Yang, alright follow me Weiss I know the perfect place for a 'Private' discussion."

"WHAT!" Slightly more color appeared on her face, not a demure blush, this was anger filling her cheeks at being the center of the joke between the two blondes. "No, fine you have had your laugh, very funny now get moving Jaune!"

"Oh I like that attitude, would you mind if I tagged along, you know, just to watch!"

Jaune so desperately wanted to turn around and looked that Weiss's face but guessed by the slight falter of steps behind himself that Weiss was scowling and probably desperate to escape from Yang before she had time to think of anything else to embarrass the Schnee Heiress with.

The two didn't even leave the library, Jaune led her up to the second then third story where the shelves were covered in fine layers of dust as there was little call for the staff or students to venture up here often aside from just exploration, Jaune personally liked the atmosphere up here, he felt a certain kinship with many of these books, they housed stories and histories that not many would bother to discover and read anymore, at least not portrayed the same way as these much older volumes would tell the tales.

"I think this is private enough," Jaune said as he looked around and spotted no one nearby, turning to face Weiss he noticed the hand coming in for the slap, he had expected it to be honest, after Yang's comments and him not bothering to say anything aside from his own comment, Jaune didn't feel like getting slapped, he knew his aura would negate the blow, he just didn't feel it was deserved so he learn back and watched as the hand whistled past his face and a now both embarrassed and angry Weiss glaring at him.

"You should have cleared things up before we left! Now people will start rumors! Stop laughing this isn't funny."

"No, Weiss it is, you need to lighten up a little bit if any rumors start we both know they would be untrue, and if you are worried about Yang, well honestly I think she's too stubborn that if her bluff was called she would do exactly what she suggested or implied. That being said I'm not in the mood to be slapped for you being stuck up, so ask me about our fight and my Fight with Adam." He might have regretted being so direct in other lives or not letting her have her way, but as things stood now Weiss wasn't important, she was a team leader, Ruby was keeping her occupied and happy in only the way Ruby could. She was slowly reaching the point where she be considered the real Weiss the one he knew she would become, as long as the right conditions were met but she still had a long ways to go, though he still couldn't explain why she had stuck up for Velvet before anyone else, or that the two became good friends so quickly.

Weiss glowered as only she knew how but her target was beyond unfazed, actually, Jaune wore an intimidating look himself, one that spoke of how little he cared for her or her attitude at the moment. His expression made her angrier, though with all the finesse and grace she had been taught she set aside her temper knowing that it would not earn her anything and potentially cost her. "Ruby filled you in on what I wanted to talk to you about or did you learn that from a book too?"

"Cheeky, but no, It's a simple guess though I'm betting I'm right or close enough to right for it not to matter."

"Yes, fine, first and only question. Will you train me?" That wasn't what she had meant to ask, she didn't plan to change her question out of spite or to surprise him which now that she looked at him he did seem a little bit confused by her question just now.

Jaune simply stared at Weiss, while he wasn't entirely wrong, her wanting training from him had been a goal of his but he didn't expect for her to ask for it outright, he had expected an argument over him throwing their spar and then critical questions about how he had defeated Adam so handily before eventually getting to this topic.

"I can pay you for lessons!" Weiss believed the pause to be Jaune trying to find some excuse not to agree.

"No... no, that's not necessary. You surprised me is all, I can't train you though, much like what I did with Ruby and Yang is point out inadequacies or flaws in their chosen styles, I can do that for you and that's about it." Jaune could have trained Weiss or anyone else who asked the same question of him recently, if he had the time to spare he might have done even that, but training takes time, something he knew would quickly become a finite commodity to him soon.

"While it's not exactly what I had in mind I accept!"

As the two descended to the lower floors Jaune felt his pocket vibrate for an instant. Reaching into the pocket he quickly withdrew the Scroll and read the short dangerous message.

'She controls the Grimm!'

* * *

 **Another one up!  
**

 **Not much to be said for this chapter, I wanted a bit more filler before going into my replacement for the Docks incident.**

 **So for all of you who said Jaune shouldn't have taken that knee last chapter if he was so skilled, I hope this chapter answered that. Qrow was present and he is all about bad luck, no matter how skilled or how much of an advantage someone might have in a fight, luck has its place as much as anything else.**

 **Anyways next Chapter is Villian time and the start of a bad time for Jaune and Yang.**

 **Follow / Favorite / Review**


	26. Chapter 26

Roman had been having a great day, the ball was rolling on his revenge against Cinder. It wasn't as fast as he had hoped it would be but had long before he got a second chance at life learned to curb his hopes and instead rely on more realistic expectations.

He had felt energized with his goal now being obtainable, Jaunes odd attitude towards Cinders assumed new power source made himself cautious. He would have freely admitted that he had a guilty pleasure whenever he antagonized Cinder out of her normal character to what he assumed she was like on the inside, short tempered, cruel, and threatening, nothing like how she portrayed herself to others.

Collecting the few things the kid had wanted hadn't been an issue, unlocked Scrolls were easy enough to get, and the programs he had wanted weren't overly difficult for himself to acquire, Jaune likely wouldn't have been able to get them on his own of course, at least not without a pile of Lien or a promise of a favor. Lien he didn't expect the kid to have, a favor on the other hand maybe, though he doubted the teen would bother to follow through on any favor that would put himself or others in serious jeopardy.

Now Roman stood back and watched as some of Bandsaw's new White Fang recruits began slowly moving the dust he had acquired out of Vale and to Mountain Glenn, with the much smaller workforce this was going to be a much longer process, and between Jaune and himself they had plans that would remove a large portion of it hopefully well before Cinder might become reliant on it to prolong her own life.

The Faunus were restless under his gaze, they were a different batch than the ones he was put in charge of during his other life, these ones wouldn't accept his orders or likely any humans order's, they were fanatics much like the incognito Bandsaw who was being made to appear as Adam by means of Emerald's Semblance, though aside from a facelift Bandsaw couldn't be farther from Adam if he tried, he lacked the presence and charisma the true White Fang leader had, Bandsaw was a pale replacement and the type of recruits he gathers accentuate that with the number of hardline fanatics slowly filling the depleted ranks.

He watched only for a moment secretly hoping the rough and careless fanatics would set off some of the red dust and destroy the entire warehouse, that fact that he was inside himself didn't really bother his mind, he knew he had lingered hear to long when he began to disregard his own well being so he moved on, moving deeper into the Warehouse to find the reason he was called here.

He wasn't scheduled to meet with Cinder for another week around the time she estimated that Mercury would be finished planting all the explosives, to be called in well before that time made him uncertain to the intentions of the meeting, particularly that Neo wasn't available right now, she would be meeting the Blondes soon and he didn't want to give them reason to doubt him, so now he was alone wandering deeper into the massive warehouse to find his employer.

 _Honestly, she could have sent someone to meet me, save me the trouble on navigating this place._

As high as he was on the shadowy catwalks he couldn't see Cinder or even really get an idea where she might be, stacks of shipping crates obscured large portions of the building. He chose to wander aimlessly, the Faunus below him wouldn't give him any answers and approaching Emerald and Bandsaw wouldn't be smart either, well it would cause issues, but he wasn't set to be that disruptive yet.

Eventually, he found himself near what remained of the Sap, all packaged up in nondescript metal canisters that would be easily ignored by any passerby who might notice them, Roman actually picked one up to admire the craftsmanship in these little devices.

A remote electrical current would trigger every canister in unison, the contents would then mix together and be ejected into the air, the normally heavy sap wouldn't remain in the air by itself, Cinder apparently had a friend who knew both how to make the bombs in a quick manner as well as bond the Sap with something lighter to keep the substance airborne for several hours supposedly.

Roman while he could understand the reason for attacking the Upper class he, much like Jaune and Yang didn't understand the point of the bombs, the district was probably better protected than other far more important areas of the city. Placing the canister back on the shelf he moved deeper inside still, the dust crates here managed to obscure a fair portion of the light leaving long shadows everywhere.

He was hardly scared of shadows and didn't think Cinder would be waiting in them to jump out and suprise him either, but lacking anywhere else to go he wandered into the shadowy corridors that led ever closer to the center of the building and where he knew the Alpha Grimm to be caged, or thats where the cages still were.

Fifteen empty cages occupied the center of the building, of those fifteen, seven were still locked and barred the interiors being covered in the black substance that a Grimm releases upon death. The other eight cages stood open, no residue present.

He brought forward Melodic Cudgel, he had been casually swinging his weapon around as he walked earlier, now though it was planted against the floor in a position the appear to others to be supporting his weight, in reality it was a stance he had spent a long time perfecting, no weight rested on the cane and with a simple flick of his wrist or kick of his foot and his weapon would be ready to attack or defend as needed.

Ready for an attack he looked over his surroundings with more care now, the eight open cages hadn't been forced open from the insides, they appeared as if the locks had either been melted or exploded off, either way, the cages had been opened and the powerful Grimm released on purpose.

As he pondered this he heard the faint sounds of heeled shoes clicking against the floor moving towards himself, he recognized the sound as Cinders and while he didn't entirely relax he did drop his posture, as to not give her a chance to see how he might look when prepared for a fight.

 _Every small secret or trick helps._

As the heel clicks moved closer he began to hear the distinct guttural sound of Grimm breathing.

Backing up before Cinder appeared Roman made sure to have a Shipping crate at his back leaning against it trying to appear relaxed, to further hammer that home he pulled out a cigar and began preparing it to be lit, as he finished the process and placed the now lit Cigar in his mouth as Cinder appeared from one of the many paths that led to the area, behind her stood a trio monstrous looking Beowulf and a Pair of Ursa, all five showing clear sign's of being Alpha level Grimm on Size alone.

The sight had shocked him, one Grimm of this calibre would have caused him issues in a fight, now five of the beasts calmly followed Cinder, not a one made a hostile or threatening gesture toward her or himself, actually now that the initial shock had worn off he noticed all five seemed to not be entirely here, it was hard to tell with Grimm but each set of eyes seemed dull or muted the normally deep red/orange seemed dimmed and the eyes entirely unfocused.

"Might want to be careful Cinder those things don't look healthy exactly!"

"Why do I not find it hard to believe that this doesn't even surprise you, or that you're at least able to mask your surprise behind your ever present snark!" Cinder glanced at the criminal before stepping towards him, the Grimm didn't follow instead they moved to the cages that had been opened, each stepped inside and then for a moment their eyes became more alive and focused before in unison all five fell prone to the floors of their cages asleep.

"Show's over Roman, now come along."

Casting one final glance at the cage's he turned to follow Cinder.

 _Is this normal for a Host? The kid said being a host amplifies a person's ability to heal as well as their physical strength and Semblance but he never said anything about Grimm control, was that just an oversight or is she something different?_

"When did you pick up that trick?" Fishing for information never hurt and him just accepting her abilities with no comment would probably be seen as suspicious.

"Only recently, a friend showed me how it was accomplished, but I didn't call you here to talk about that." Cinder reached their destination and sank into a chair that had a glass of wine poured and ready for her as well a plate filled with an assortment of foods, she made no move to touch either though. "Don't sit, you won't be here long."

Roman who had been about to claim a chair, expecting this to be another of Cinders longer boring planning sessions was surprised but also pleased wanting to be away from her as soon as he could. "You called me across the entire City for a couple minutes of conversation? Ah well not like I had anything better to do I suppose, what do you need then?"

"News from a trusted source has come through, I now have a date for our attack. In two weeks a joint force consisting of Vale and Atlas Huntsmen will be sent into Forever Fall to deal with a Horde of Grimm I have placed there, originally to keep Adam in check but now they serve as a distraction for our attack on the Vale high society."

"If you can control enough Grimm to warrant that kind of response, why wouldn't you just make them attack Vale directly, a force that large could probably breach the wall."

"Oh they certainly could but that wouldn't get my desired result, the wall would hold long enough for reinforcements to arrive and civilians to be evacuated, there would be no lasting fear, more likely the huntsmen would be lauded as heroes and Vale would celebrate having the opposite reaction that what I desire."

"Fear and anger are good for my type of business, I somehow doubt your looking to do this to earn a little Lien, though truth be told you are paying me enough not to give a damn either, so what's my role and remember my stipulation, no authorities know I'm in Vale and I plan to keep it that way!" He had worked hard to keep his location secret ever since his last job in Atlas, he had botched a simple job and while it had earned him a valuable friend who owed him a favor it also earned him the direct wrath of the Atlas Military, it was a complicated arrangement.

"Yes, yes. Though I'm uncertain why you wish to be so reclusive it does not interfere with any plans I have made, all you need to do is have two bullheads ready. The details of where they need to be and when will be forwarded to your Scroll, aside from that I want you and Neo to pay a visit to a Hospital for me!"

* * *

Cinder watched Roman leave, he had only been present for a few minutes but to her, it had been taxing to try and appear normal.

Controlling the Alpha Grimm became easier with time but unlike the general fodder of the Forest where she could control an army with no adverse effects to her health five Alpha's was all she could manage.

When she first gained the ability to control them she could only manage two, quickly that number became three then four. Eventually, she had all eight that remained in her thrall, controlling the eight at once had been too much. With a brief lapse in concentration the now missing trio escaped her control and attacked her and the remaining five, the fight had been a sloppy mess that potentially could have destroyed everything she had worked for.

The five Grimm under her control barely matched the trio in strength, it made sense that the three she lost control of were the strongest but only after the fight did she realize exactly how much stronger, not that it mattered they were dead and somehow she had managed to prevent any of her unstable dust stored in the warehouse from igniting and destroying the building.

Since then she worked on controlling the Alpha's assigning them different tasks and altering what they did constantly, now she could handle direct control of all five for a couple hours but each time after resting she improved that slightly.

Resting was important, the brief meeting with Roman had taxed what little endurance she had left, as soon as Roman was out of sight she grabbed the glass and drained its contents in one go, then she turned to the plate and began to devour its contents, the plate had been piled high and appeared to have more than she should be able to manage to eat, that was not the case though she cleared the plate in minutes and even then still felt the pangs of hunger so she moved to a nearby room that had been recently stocked with all manner of foods and she began to fill her plate again.

Clearing her plate again and washing the entire meal down with another glass of wine, this time a cool one, she felt more herself, though there was still a slight problem with herself, she had been unable to sleep since gaining control of the Alpha's, she wasn't feeling the fatigue normally attributed to not sleeping and it was well past the point when that should have become an issue to her.

Beyond not sleeping the Grimm inside herself hadn't exacted its toll on her body since the first time she began gaining control of the Alpha's, not that she was wanting the pain, the few times the creature had done so had been painful but the most recent time had been debilitating, she had lost hours of her life curled on the floor in searing pain, mercifully she had blackout out eventually when it became so overwhelming.

She had, once recovered paid another visit to her personal Grimm and it had appeared on the verge of death itself, it sat motionless in its cell and didn't even acknowledge her presence, in her subsequent visits it had improved and now looked as she remembered it.

They had even had a few conversations or as much as she could handle with its long hissing words, the beast had nothing truly enlightening to divulge or at least not anything it chose to share like it did with the ability to control the Alphas.

She didn't doubt the creature had more it could teach her or that maybe she could steal from it so during the time she recovered and being unable to sleep she would turn her thoughts inward and study her prisoner.

* * *

Neo sat in the shop and happily ate her second bowl of Gelato, when she first saw the dish she had been unimpressed, it looked just like ice cream hardly worth the effort to come to this out of the way shop. Even though the entire trip had taken her only moments with her ability.

Still coming all this way she decided to try the treat before returning to Beacon and kicking Jaune in the head for wasting her time.

One bite was all it took for her to get hooked, the flavour in the Gelato was much more pronounced than traditional ice cream and after finishing her original bowl it felt far more filling, though not enough for her appetite to be satiated and she ordered a second bowl of a different flavour and ate this one at a much slower pace enjoying the distinct taste of Raspberry cleansing the taste of chocolate from her original bowl from her mouth.

As she finished the bowl she leaned back in her chair and let out a silent muted sigh of satisfaction, also mentally apologizing for thinking any ill thoughts towards the man who had made her aware of this great treat. Even as she apologized in her head she formed the idea that if he was a time traveler he must know all the best treats and Gelato might just be the tip of the iceberg, she resolved to find out what other treat's he might know of.

As much as she desired to order another bowl to try more flavors she couldn't bring herself to, she was full, as if her realizing she was no longer busy her Scroll rang and a message flitted across the screen with a smile she tossed the Lien owed on the table, wanting to make sure she was welcomed back here and she vanished, it was time to get to work and she had a Huntsmen Hospital to scope out.

* * *

She watched Jaune go through the motions of his workout regime, she liked to consider what she did to be a step above other huntsmen or huntress's but he put her to shame, she might have felt bad knowing what was a stake if they failed but the subconscious guilt was easily ignored watching him work.

He had explained to her once how in many of his early lives he was a butterball who struggled with everything when it came to being a huntsman. Slow, soft, weak these and many more negative words he had used to describe himself, probably part of the reason why his body these days was a sculpted masterpiece of three years of persistent and all inclusive conditioning that he hid beneath loose fitting clothing and his seemingly ever-present hoodie.

She had been included in the messages that passed from Roman to Jaune, learning that Cinder could control Grimm had suprised her but it stalled Jaunes brain for a moment, when he returned with Weiss he just sat in his chair in a daze before randomly leaving the library, she had followed out of genuine concern fearing he might do something rash, instead he smiled ackownledging her presense and told her he was going to train and think for awhile.

She had joined him to an extent, changing and meeting him in the gym. No conversation was to be had, Jaune had set into his routine immediately focusing on his task and quickly getting lost in the exercise.

Being a public space and a high traffic one at that, particularly for second and third years, very few first years had the time for additional body training with the course workload of their initial year, second and third year student do much less course work and large blocks of time are not even at Beacon so they take advantage of the facilities when they were at the school.

This was actually the first time she had accompanied him to his training and for the show alone she wasn't going to miss any going forward.

Jaune finished his most recent set and after wiping the machine down came to sit beside her, his shirt heavy with sweat, so much that she was concerned he might be overdoing it but considering he only appeared slightly winded she didn't bother bringing it up.

"No one outside Salem has ever controlled Grimm before," Jaune spoke quietly as he sat down. "Well thats not true, for some reason that damn Dragon has always seemed content to, I'm not sure what exactly, I doesn't attack her but she also never ordered it to do anything either."

"Does this mean she's not a host of Lolth? This could be a good thing for all we know!" Yang said ever trying to be the optimist.

"Not being a host means good things for us I guess, if she doesn't have the healing abilities or enhanced Semblance killing her would be almost simple even with Grimm at her back. Though I doubt we are that lucky. Salem need's the towers disrupted and Ozpin out of the way, I'd be more willing to bet that this is just an ability that other hosts never unlocked, Cinder is typically beyond loyal to Salem, something that can't be said of the other Hosts I came across, loyal or otherwise, it's not a huge stretch of the imagination that Salem might have given Cinder an advantage no other host received." Wiping the sweat from his brow he turned and smiled. "That being said, it might also punish her body more than the other hosts, this could be a blessing if that is the case."

"Look at you being all optimistic, dare I assume I'm rubbing off on you a little bit?"

Jaune nudged her knee with his own and simply smiled, brooding over Cinder would get him nowhere he knew and accepted that. Jaune chose to enjoy this pleasant moment not worrying, instead enjoying her company, both covered in sweat and surrounded by the grunts and rattle of metal that echoed throughout the gym, such and odd place to have a quiet moment of reflection.

Jaune's moment of quiet happiness ended all too soon.

"Wow, Juane open your eyes and look at that, he has you put to shame!"

Jaune opened his eyes and didn't have to look far to see who Yang was referring to.

Team CFVY had apparently arrived in the brief time he had been relaxing and Jaune knew immediately which one Yang was referring too.

All members of Coco's team were pushed by her to be the absolute best of the best and their figures proved that statement, Huntsmen and Huntress's already had near impossible body standards but to see Team CFVY in form-fitting gym clothing at least for the girls was a treat to the eyes of everyone present, Yang had earned her own amount of appreciative glances but nothing on the level the bold Coco or shy Velvet earned.

Yatsuhashi stripped of his armor and bulky clothing and wearing only a pair of shorts and a tank top that strained to cover his form, the large man had muscles on top of muscles, he was a powerhouse no one not even Yang could rival, at least not without the use of her Semblance, but the man suffered from his large form, he was about as flexable as an iron girder and watching him stretching was comical.

Lastly was Fox the one he was certain Yang was referring to, the seemingly blind man was covered in scars but they didn't detract from his appearance Jaune had learned that the ladies of team CFVY or more specifically Coco loved every inch of the man, their relationship was a secret though, Jaune wasn't sure why but assumed it was on Fox's request since Coco had no issues flirting with her partner at any given oppertunity.

Jaune might have felt self-conscious for Yang's obvious gawking at Fox but instead took it as flattery, most of his fitness program was blatantly stolen from Team CVFY though he took his training on a slightly different path they were the base he had started with.

"Hey, in any of your lives did I ever hook up with that?"

"If you did it was probably your funeral, Coco guards her man jealously if anyone shows even slight interest in him."

"Oh..." Yang sounded sad eyeing Fox one last time wistfully before looking at Coco. "So are they a couple then? They certainly don't act like one."

"Think of them as Ren and Nora, except they are together-together, except they or more likely Fox doesn't want other people to know they are together-together."

"So it's not unrequited love then, I wonder what the story behind that is?" Yang looked at Jaune hoping he might know and divulge the secret.

"Don't know, never really bothered to find out, not my in my nature to pry into people's personal lives, also the reason why I try to avoid relationships in repeats I felt like I was stealing someone else's happiness, and in most cases, I know who I stole it from. It wasn't right for me to do that."

"If that's the case who do I typically end up with?" She was curious who she typically ended up with.

"Oh no one, you end up being a crazy dog lady looking after Zwei and his hundreds up puppies." Jaune kept his face neutral and his voice as deadpan as possible that for a moment, Yang looked at him in fear for it being the truth before he cracked a tiny smile which earned him a solid punch to the arm that legitimately stung even through his aura.

"Fine don't tell you ass, not like it will matter for me anyways." With a wry grin, Yang left Jaune alone on the bench and disappeared into the women's locker room.

With a smirk of his own at Jaune followed suit heading to the men's.

* * *

"So we have a rough day for the attack and a solid idea on what we should be facing, Five Alpha Grimm and potentially an Army of fodder if what Roman said is true. Not great odd's if the majority of Vale's defenders are out of the City hunting down an army that in all likelihood won't be there when they arrive. Though he wasn't exactly clear on whether or not that Horde was going to be part of the attack or not." Yang said thinking out loud as the pair sat alone in their dorm, Pyrrha and Blake were off somewhere else.

"I think we should ignore the army in the forest, If the plan is to attack the upper class district then having the majority of Vale's assets outside the city as long as possible work's in Cinders favor, if the Horde of Grimm are missing the attack team will just return to Vale early and then she would lose her advantage, there has to be something else she has prepared that Roman doesn't know about."

"What about the two Bullhead's, what could they be for, or for that matter I thought they were ignoring Adam." Her voice growled the name out, she shook her head trying to curb the ever present anger when she thought of the bastard Faunus. "Neo and Roman are investigating the Hospital he is being held at. What is our plan if they are ordered to liberate Adam?"

The room fell into silence, neither had an answer for the Bullhead but both were in agreeance as well as Roman that Adam was not to be freed, the issue was how to deal with him without Cinder getting suspicious of Roman and Neo.

"Well we have another issue to deal with, what excuse can we use to have our entire team in the Upper-Class District the night of the attack the excuse will be even more convoluted if we bring Team WNRR along." Jaune had spent the time between their first meeting with Roman until now trying to find a reason they could bring everyone out to the district without it being overly suspicious. Hours of searching through the business's that dotted the district had earned him nothing though, the place lacked anything that would interest anyone among the two team's, except Weiss potentially.

"We don't have to have the teams with us, a simple Scroll call and we will have backup in no time, besides an easy excuse would be just the two of us out on a date to a fancy resturant."

"You do realize we can't use the Lien Roman gave us so openly and unless your holding out on me about some secret fortune then we legitimately cannot afford to eat anywhere near the district let alone in it. Still, a nice simple date into Vale would be a good alibi and its not like walking through the parks of the district are crimes. Sure a date it is." Jaune let go a long sigh glad that between the two of them they at least came up with a solution that worked, even if it was just the two of them initially Yang was right, backup was not far away.

* * *

 **Another one is up!  
**

 **So hmm what to say here.**

 **They learned about Cinder controlling the Grimm, really not much of a surprise, as far as she is concerned Roman while being an ass is on her side and she had no reason to hide the ability from him.**

 **For those curious Arthur Watt's, the evil man with the majestic mustache is responsible for the explosive devices, also no, he along with the other two men of the evil quartet will not be making an appearance during the district battle.**

 **Neo is going to ruin Jaune's life going forward, Gelato has her hooked on believing his story somewhat and now he will never escape unless he feed's her every sweet he knows of, to be fair he knows of a great many because I know of a great many, during a much earlier and fatter part of my life I lacked self control and ate anything sweet or sugary.**

 **Hmm, some more Jaune and Yang flirting, trying to add more levity for the two before things go bad again for them.**

 **Ah well, I think that's it!**

 **Follow / Favorite / Review**


	27. Chapter 27

Jaune wanted to stare dagger's into the man responsible for his current predicament, unfortunately, he couldn't spare a glance, his entire body needed to be focused on his task at hand.

The universe had some perverse sense of humor if it thought this was a fair encounter by any means, sure each of his opponents alone stood no chance against him. The four of them united against him felt unsporting, to be honest.

Sure Pyrrha could manhandle Team CRDL in every life but she had a Semblance that directly helped her in combat, he had no such thing, just time and skill.

The fight had been going on for what felt like ages to him, his adversaries had tried to beat him with ranged attacks early on, between the four of them they had sapped a large chunk of his Aura before he had managed to get them to shoot each other with errant crossfire, they assumed correctly it was intentionally orchestrated by him so they chose to finish him in melee.

Now he was slowly being forced back by Ren and Nora, the two worked well in tandem and while they together couldn't push him back much, Ruby with the assistance of Weiss constantly pushed him closer to the edge of the stage.

The attack's had a pattern though, Jaune after seeing the attack enough times had it memorized and with Ren and Nora backing away he knew Ruby was set to launch herself again.

Ruby came in from his side again, enhanced by her Semblance, Cresent Rose, and Weiss's glyph's to become a blur like never before, the confined space of the stage made it difficult for Ruby to get up to speed and this was an easy cheat, one he had seen many times, but also a hard one to deal with.

His saving grace was that while the two girls could do the combo move already Ruby wasn't used to the speed yet, she couldn't bring her weapon around fast enough to attack and the charge wasn't truly threatening without her weapon involved.

As much as he regretted doing it mainly cause it was going to hurt like hell for the both of them he needed to start dealing with his opponents.

Jaune leaned into Ruby's charge, while he couldn't make out her facial expression the loud "NONONO" right before she collided with him told him everything he needed. Her momentum plus his braced stance spelled the end for the first of Team WNRR. His shoulder caught her in the midriff driving the air from her body and no doubt robbed her of the ability to breathe for a few minutes, not that it mattered a bell went off announcing Ruby was out of the fight.

Jaune had no time to celebrate as Nora swung her hammer at his exposed flank intending to take advantage of Ruby's sacrifice, Jaune hadn't had enough time to recover from dealing with Ruby that the Hammer struck him cleanly in the back, knocking him to the floor hard.

Rolling to avoid another strike from the powerhouse and her Hammer he rolled right into one of Weiss's glyphs. Without hesitation, he moved to escape the glyph while he managed to avoid its effect in the process Ren appeared from his blind spot and twisted Crocea Mors out of his hand and sending the Blade to the stage floor which Weiss immediately embedded in a layer of Ice.

With a glance he could tell the Ice wasn't particularly thick and he could easily recover his blade, at the same time it was so obvious a trap that he looked away almost instantly.

Weiss and Ren stood to his sides encircling him while Nora with a very disconcerting smile twirled her massive hammer like it was a baton.

Thinking his attention to be focused on Nora both Weiss and Ren rushed in from his sides, with a speed that surprised the two attackers Jaune dove toward Weiss past her rapier and grabbing her wrist and shoulder of the arm that held Myrtenaster, in one fluid motion he applied pressure to cause her to release her weapon and then with a twist he threw her right into Ren, the surprised man's only reaction was to move Stormflower out of Weiss's path and then catch his team leader's ass squarely in the face, the two collapsed onto the floor in a very unfortunate pose of the quiet, monk-like, Ren having his head completely obscured by Weiss's combat skirt.

As the two disentangled from each other and Nora staring at Weiss with an expression of jealousy having his three remaining opponents distracted Jaune moved to capitalize.

First with a kick to the stomach of Ren he doubled the man over, Weiss made a move to intervene only to remember she had been disarmed as she was thrown into Ren, still, she closed with Jaune not entirely defenseless without her weapon.

While she wasn't defenseless she had no answer to Jaunes next move nor was she aware how close Ren and herself were to the edge of the stage.

In a similar action to what he had just done to Weiss tossing her into Ren he repeated the action on the stunned Ren gripping him and whipping him into Weiss this time, the two fell in unison from the stage and collapsed onto the floor outside, both had Aura to spare but leaving the stage was considered an elimination which just left Jaune alone against Nora.

If anyone was to look at the monitor that displayed Aura it would have seemed like Nora should have the advantage, she was still in the green while Jaune sat dangerously low in the yellow likely on the verge of Aura loss.

The outset of the fight had cost him the most every member of team WNRR had a ranged option and they used it, chipping away at his aura early on, it had only been when he had managed to make them shot each other enough times that it was clear they weren't accidents that they had swapped the melee approach that had allowed him to swing the spar in his favor.

Jaune looked at Myrtenaster after throwing Ren and Weiss from the stage, it was the closest weapon so he grabbed it and prepared for Nora.

If he utilized Myrtenaster like he knew he could, he could end this in an instant.

He wouldn't do that, there was no point in a simple spar, even if the spar was a four on one ordered by none other than Ozpin himself showing something like that was stupid. He couldn't use the dust inside the weapon but that didn't make the rest of it useless, Myrtenaster was a combination of Atlas weapon craftsmanship coupled with the unlimited funds of the Schnee Dust Company. Perfectly balanced and far stronger than it appeared the weapon was a true masterpiece even without the cutting edge dust system housed inside.

Jaune hefted the blade instead of adopting a fencer's stance like the blade dictated he should he reversed his grip on the blade and held it before himself parallel with his arm, he had no fear of Nora one on one but he was exhausted and was beginning to feel the piling up of all the minor injuries he had accumulated through the spar beginning to take their toll.

Still, Jaune didn't move allowing himself a moment to catch his breath and relax while Nora looked for an opening, Jaune appeared to have many at the moment, every single one was made to trick Nora into capitalizing on her tired and weakened opponent.

Nora made her move, swinging in hard to Jaunes left side and into his heavy armguard, his entire body shook from the impact, he had time to dodge but he needed her in close for this to work and he was confident he could withstand her hammer without Aura loss as long as she attacked his left side.

Now that she had committed he brought Myrtenaster around behind his back striking her from an angle she didn't expect, the force of the swing wasn't much but sent the Hammer wielder stumbling forward slightly.

With Nora off balance, he wrapped his left arm around the head of her Hammer and with another swipe of Myrtenasterhe wrenched the weapon from her hands.

Nora was not a great fighter, she relied on brute strength and let Ren deal with the finesse and that would cost her now as Jaune discarded Myrtenaster as well as the Greathammer and assaulted Nora with his legs and fists, hoping to have his former teammate take the initiative to become a more diversified fighter after this.

Nora and Yang were both powerhouses and there Semblances just made them even more so, Yang could activate hers at will and made a powerful bonus during a tough situation, Nora's required a literal spark for her Semblance to turn on, sure she might get more than strength and durability but also a speed boost but that trigger is something Jaune never understood.

Nora never prepared a way to activate her Semblance on demand when she was it Beacon, instead always relying on circumstances to just naturally end up in her favor, even something as simple as a dust taser or a special lightning grenade canister would work and she would have been even more dominating than she already was.

She had none of those things and stripped of her weapon Jaune forced her from the stage in series of jabs and low kicks that kept forcing her backward with no avenue of escape.

With the stage clear Jaune let himself sag to the floor in a sitting position, Aura on the verge of depletion and just frankly exhausted he gave himself a moment to collect himself before taking to his feet again and lining up beside the members of Team WNRR that could stand, Ruby, Jaune looked at the small for and had a twinge of regret as Nora and Ren helped her stay upright but she clearly looked uncomfortable to be doing so, that being said through her short quick breaths she was still all smiles so Jaune let the regret go only to have it replaced with a whisper of fear fro what Yang might do to him for hitting her sister so hard.

Again Ozpin went into meticulous detail about the encounter offering praise and suggestions through every portion of the fight, Amber was beside him and took notes and paid heed to every word Ozpin said trying her best to become a teacher suitable to handle this class without the Headmasters presence.

Jaune tuned out the lesson and thought back to two weeks prior when he and Yang had fought in this same room, if he had known Qrow was going to be replaced with Ozpin and then that the Headmaster was going to throw tougher and more interesting combinations of opponents at him he would have happily let Yang cave his head in during their fight to save himself the trouble he was going through and that seemed would continue as long as Ozpin filled in while looking for a suitable second to help Amber manage then lesson.

The combination of exhaustion and immediately ignoring Ozpin led to Jaune standing alone on the stage with a dazed expression on his face that was luckily perceived by everyone as utter exhaustion, Team WNRR had already departed the platform and he assumed he was dismissed as well but he had missed that and was now impeding the next fight, snapping too and with a sheepish smile he left the stage and went to sit next to Ruby wanting to make sure she was as alright as he smile said she was.

"You doing okay Ruby?"

Looking worse for wear but at least her breathing was regular again she stood up from her seat so quickly Jaune was momentarily caught off guard by the action, the Reaper wrapped her arms around him and squeezed far tighter and stronger than anyone her size should be able to manage.

"OKAY! I'm great that was the best spar I've ever had, though I don't clearly remember the end, trouble breathing, I'm sure you understand!"

Jaune struggled to untangle himself from the girl's excited hug but managed to when Ruby loosened her death grip, likely due to her own pain at the moment as she folded into a sitting position and clutched her abdomen where his shoulder had connected earlier.

"I told you to lie down, don't force me to have you dragged to the nurse's office." Weiss crouched beside her partner clearly concerned for her wellbeing but also being her usual self about it.

"I'm fine Weiss, just moved a little too quickly is all."

"Hrmph, well you sit there and relax, and NO Cheering, you will just end up hurting yourself." Weiss glared at her partner who only replied with a sheepish grin knowing that Ruby wasn't likely to not cheer, particularly when Yang was taking the stage to fight against a pair from another team, Weiss stood beside her to stem the younger girls overzealous need to cheer.

"Where do you think you are going? You are responsible for Ruby's condition so you have to help me make sure she doesn't aggravate her injuries."

Jaune had almost slunk away before Weiss focused on him and now was stuck in the precarious position of being the focus of Weiss's ire from harming her partner and Ruby's puppy eyes that spoke of betrayal from his attempted getaway.

"I uh, think I hear Blake calling me, wouldn't want to keep her waiting." With that Jaune moved past the couple seats and wedged himself in between Blake and Pyrrha in a spot he both should not have and currently didn't fit into. Neither girl seemed to appreciate his shoving to make himself fit but both heard the angry call from Weiss and the giggle of laughter that came from a combined Nora and Ruby, both his teammates made room for their illustrious leader as he used them as shields to escape from Weiss.

* * *

"I swear if I had the ability I would ring his neck a dozen times over at this point." Weiss scowled at the man who held her ire, as competent as Jaune was he appeared to enjoy playing the rascal, particularly towards her, she wasn't sure why she was the exception to the rule as he treated everyone with courtesy and respect, and to be truthful when she was serious about something she found he treated her the same as anyone else, but outside of those moments of serious discussion she found his personality towards her jarring as she felt to prodded by him to act differently.

"Come on Captain, you beat him on the first combat lesson ever, you just need to do that again, I'll help, just need to catch him off guard and break his legs..."

"Please, Nora stop planning the torture of our classmates."

Nora grinned at Ren. "OKAY, one condition though." Nora's eyes sparkled in a dangerous way, everyone around them froze as they expected her to finally confess to Ren.

"Alright, I will make you pancakes after class." Ren spoke as he seemed to flawlessly miss every single social clue imaginable,

Nora's eyes lost their sparkle and for a brief moment flashed with shock before settling on resignation as she turned away from the oblivious object of her affection and began shout cheers of encouragement to Yang, who quite clearly did not need the support as her two opponents were being chased around the stage by Yang.

Weiss after making sure nothing was wrong with her team sat quietly and brooded, as Ruby and Nora would call it. She called it no such thing she was simply thinking about a great many things, namely Team ABYN, not just their leader but their other members as well.

The team housed the three most dominating combatants of their age group, she was certain even if they were paired up against their upperclassmen they would likely still pose no real issue to the trio, Blake was the one exception of Team ABYN, while Jaune, Pyrrha, and Yang were already being pitted against pairs or in Jaunes case a full team the final member of their team only sparred in single match's.

That wasn't to say she was unskilled, next to her own partner Ruby, Blake probably had one of the most unwieldy weapons imaginable, whoever designed the weapon was a lunatic and to master it to the degree Blake had was no small feat, Blake utilized her weapon mastery to confuse and disable foes and so far has been unmatched in a singles fight.

Ozpin ascribes to the same method of teaching as Glynda did there were never spars against your own partners or teammates unless specifically requested, Jaune and Yangs fight had been an exception because of the one lesson Ruby's uncle presided over.

Yang's bout ended as her two opponents were finally chased from the stage by the brawler, the match also signaled the end of the class.

* * *

The group occupying his office when he arrived with Amber looked to be on the verge of a fight, Qrow and Winter did not care for each other, Winter detested the man in general purpose for not fitting into her narrow belief of how a huntsman should act, Qrow probably didn't have any legitimate feelings of animosity towards Winter so much as who she served under.

"Now now no need to argue, Team WNRR put on an admirable fight but they just couldn't handle such a raw and powerful homegrown Vale specimen such as Jaune Arc!" Port smiled broadly assuming incorrectly that he was helping to diffuse the situation.

"You do realize that team WNRR does have one Vale representative." Winter was frustrated Qrow, he had been antagonizing her for days now, and the suggestion to watch her sisters sparring class had been too tempting to pass up when she had seen her sister's team pitted against a sole opponent she wasn't sure what to make of Ozpin's decision. As the fight progressed and her sister team lost Qrow had made several sarcastic comments which had grown closer to enraging her.

"Well, clearly Mr. Arc viewed Ms. Rose as the greatest threat to himself as she was the first he eliminated and the only one he had to forcefully knock into critical Aura."

Winter stared at the rotund Professor in annoyance and welcomed the interruption from Ozpin arriving, she only had to endure these people for a few more days before returning to Atlas, not before visiting with her sister of course once her mission was finished that is.

"I will keep this brief, as you all are already aware of your task's for tomorrow. This is not a public operation, neither the Atlas or Vale councils know of your presence here outside of Ironwood," Ozpin nodded to Winter, the Atlas specialist was informed of this before being sent out by Ironwood. "And it has been kept secret from the Vale council due to their notorious predisposition to showboating, if they caught wind of this they would no doubt stream the entire thing live and I think you all know how well that would affect the populous if things turned out badly."

Around the room, every veteran huntsman nodded solemnly, even Port who love to brag understood the significance that if the Huntsmen lost a major battle and it was a known thing fear would run rampant and Vale would be in even more danger than it already currently was with the massive horde to the north.

"Good now that that is done everyone please get some rest we have a long day ahead of ourselves tomorrow, Miss Schnee could you remain for a moment please." As he spoke he sat in his chair and activated his personal terminal, the two waited in silence as the room rapidly emptied.

As the door slide shut Ozpin turned the terminal to face Winter. "Now that we are alone I do hope you allow me the courtesy to change your mind about filling a temporary teaching gap."

"While I'm flattered that both General Ironwood and yourself hold me in such high regard to offer me this position even if temporary I again refuse, I don't believe I have the appropriate... temperament for a teaching role," She frowned remembering the frustration of dealing with others her own age when she attended the Atlas Academy, "That aside Teaching here would be a conflict of interests as my Sister would be one of my students."

"Well, as long as you are in Vale the offer will stand. Now on to other matters." Ozpin dropped the subject so quickly that Winter was caught off guard. "I have fabricated your own personal arrival here in Vale under Academy business so that you will be free to visit with your sister and to visit our fine city if you feel so inclined."

Thanking the headmaster for the amount of freedom he had extended on behalf of Beacon and himself she excused herself leaving Ozpin alone her mind not going over the conversation the two had but instead at what she had been shown on the monitor, he had obviously shown her the image and the information knowing the reaction it would produce.

 _So, Roman Torchwick is in Vale..._

* * *

 **Short chapter and a painfully long gap to boot, sorry about that I simply just have had not real time to write.  
**

 **Kind of a necessity a lot it going to begin but I needed to introduce Winter and connect her to Roman.**

 **Still, a ways off from that connection but I have made enough references to Roman being in Atlas in the intervening three years and have had more than a few people wondering what exactly he was up to while there.**

 **Also, I figured I wouldn't pass up the opportunity to show how Ozpin finished off his torture lessons to Jaune, might have been overkill but I enjoyed writing it and that's what matters to me right now.**

 **Follow/Favorite/Review**

* * *

 **Now for something entirely different.**

* * *

The Scoundrel stood on the cliff overlooking the Forest of trails, remembering not so fondly his own less than pleasant trip through the forest decades ago. When he passed through the forest it had changed his life forever, the forest had that effect on everyone well not the forest in some cases but what came after.

The time limit given to the challengers was rapidly dwindling to its final few minutes, so far the maze-like forest had expelled all but eight challengers as failures, Those expelled ranged from novices attempting for the first time ever to grizzled veterans who have attempted the forest multiple years in a row some of the challengers were even older than the Wizard who crafted and maintained the spell for the selection process.

With the time about to finish the Scoundrel turned to a magical window that only the five figures occupying the cliff could see, the window displayed the information of those still in the forest, pertinent stats, abilities, age, class, level you name it the Wizards spell would display it.

Normally this information is reserved only to one's self but during the trial, the five instructors could see everything with the exception of one window labeled **Backstory/History** , no matter how powerful a spell things locked in a person's mind were still exempt.

Looking to his right he looked at the other four members of his group to right in order stood his last remaining partner from his days as a hero as the populous calls him The Dragon Monk, next stood the Wizard his cane floating before himself and deep in a trance, then there was the Wizards student the only women to occupy this cliff the one titled as The Witch, and lastly stood the White General.

He felt terribly out of place he wore his tattered cloak over his grey/white leather armor and strapped to his back was his blade, he looked ready for combat and the other four looked ready to have a picnic.

Ignoring the others he took one last look at the window hoping to see a few more names disappear so that he would have a reason to leave like the others who occupied the cliff previously.

When the day began over twenty people stood on the cliff the exact amount needed if everyone participating in the Forest trial completed it, every four participants expelled from the forest the number on the cliff would diminish by one, the best year ever had had five instructors left and that had been the beginning of the most prosperous time in history though that was long before his life even began.

One instructor was all they had needed the past few generations for each year, more people than ever flooded to the yearly trial but more than ever they were eliminated.

His hopes of one more year's gap before he became the first instructor was dashed when the magical timer ended and eight figures still occupied the forest.

There was no fanfare with the completion of the Forest the occupants were simply removed from the forest by the Wizard magically and deposited unceremoniously on the Cliff.

The Scoundrel winced at the memory that came to him as he remembered the trip himself and turning he found the memory matched up quite well with what has happening behind himself.

Eight figures, no correction seven figures were in a pile on the ground, while the tangled heap slowly untangled themselves the final figure a Red haired female wearing half plate armor dyed to appear bronze stood off to the side, he didn't may much or really any attention to the character windows but he did remember this one he had been shocked by her stats and combat abilities, he hadn't investigated deeply aside from that first glance but he didn't find it hard to believe that this one could easily escape such a minor fall unphased.

The other seven managed to extract themselves he got a good look at the group and growled in frustration as he recognized two as family, he inwardly cursed in frustration as he looked at the pair his Niece's both were old enough to participate in the trials both had actually attempted multiple times the older this was her seventh year and her younger sister was her fifth.

This being the last year their father was eligible to be their mentor must have pushed them both to try harder than ever before and the sisters looked quite pleased with themselves.

 _Well, I won't have to worry about being their mentor next year they are are going to pick their Father._

The Wizard began to speak explaining the long process of what they had to go through with in the coming months and explaining the Mentorship and the choosing of the mentor.

Ignoring the speech entirely he looked over the others, two nieces and the Redhead in half plate next was a girl of small stature when he first saw her this morning through the window he had assumed she was a first year applicant which he guess was true she had never taken part of the Trial before but the age displayed was twenty-two same as his older niece the petite girl had a small facial scar and wore her white hair in a ponytail.

Next was an odd pair an older man early forties and a wanted felon, if he had failed the Trail he would have been incarcerated for his crimes but the Trial circumvents the kingdom's laws if successfully passed, at the criminals side stood a girl in her late twenties hair two distinct colors and standing close to the felon, the two were obviously a pair yet no one present understood their connection as the young woman had never been seen before.

Next stood two more figures that had apparently become friends in the forest, a blonde haired man in full plate who looked shocked to have completed the trail and the other was a beast man or more specifically a beast woman, black hair covered most of her exposed flesh, that if that wasn't obvious enough as most half-breeds had more hair then they knew what to with this one was a full blood given that she didn't have just the hair but other features as well, the oddly shaped iris's being a strong hint but the defining characteristic that made all present certain she was a full blooded Beastman was the second set of ears proudly displayed from the top of her head.

Having given everyone present at least a cursory glance he turned his attention back to The Wizard who was just finishing his speech.

More formal introductions were held and it eventually came to the selection process, if there was some order present in which each applicant was allowed to choose their mentor no one aside from the Wizard and maybe the Witch knew it.

"First up, uh... Neopolitan? Dear lady do you have a last name?"

The young woman with pink and brown hair shook her head in a negative fashion.

"Then please go ahead and pick your Mentor."

With no hesitation, she moved to stand beside the Scoundrel.

Everyone present was surprised with the gesture as the Dragon Monk was considered to be the choice preference to have as a Mentor, being lauded as one of the greatest champions to ever complete the forest. That is unless you spent half your life traveling with the man then you would happily choose to be as far away from the man as possible at all times.

Still, the surprise faded fast as the Wizard calmly announced the next to select.

"Blake Belladonna."

Without so much as a word or comment, a second figure appeared beside the Scoundrel as another applicant chose him over the much more prestigious choice.

"Jaune Arc"

The sound of his name caused the blonde male to jump slightly, after a moment's indecision where he looked to want to go towards the Dragon Monk with a glance at the female Beastman he made to stand beside her and be the third member of the group.

Two members of the gathering eyes grew wide in concern, Neopolitan chose the obvious less desirable mentor to guaranty that she would have the best possible chance to be paired with her own personal Mentor the felon with the shockingly Orange hair. The man in question frowned when the third person joined the same team as his Ward, not expecting the Scoundrel's group to be the more popular one.

"Weiss Schnee"

The Dragon Monk had his first member as the petite girl glared at the three who chose the inferior choice in her opinion and joined the dashing Blonde's side.

"Pyrrha Nikos"

The cliff fell into dead silence, the girl's name was unknown to everyone even the four who shared the cliff with the Wizard watching the trial. the Nikos name held commanding respect as it spoke of a survivor of the Mistral Kingdom that had been overrun a decade prior much the same as the Vacuo and Atlas Kingdoms had fallen the only difference is some of the Mistral people survived the annihilation of their kingdom and made their way to Vale.

The Red haired woman took a long look at the Scoundrels group giving it more regard than she had previously before making her choice and moving to stand beside the Dragon Monk.

"Yang Branwen"

To those watching closely, they would have noticed both Mentor's flinch at the mention of the name Branwen, both for starkly different reasons. However, no one was looking at the men and instead looked at the girl whose name had just been called.

The Young woman that looked like the sister he remembered except with golden blonde hair with a single raven black streak mixed in over her left eye and cascading through the mess of hair until it reached the end.

With an apologetic look to the other girl remaining waiting to pick her mentor, she moved to stand with the Scoundrel, completing his team.

"Ruby Xiao Long and Roman Torchwick, you two will be the remaining members of the Dragon Monks team."

* * *

 **This is a story that has been hinted at a few times previously and is actually planned to be what comes after Well this is Different.**

 **I take's place in an AU based heavily on Remnant. Beacon is not a thing and the world is slowly going to shit. Vale is the last standing Kingdom and several hundred years of war are rapidly coming to a head.**


	28. Chapter 28

The Bullhead rattled through the air, the normally smooth ride made incredibly uncomfortable to the pilot, his passenger seemed entirely unaware that anything was off about their transportation.

Roman had acquired the two Bullheads from a Smuggler outfit he knew and the two crafts came with certain additions, their loud dust engines were muffled to the point where you would see the airship long before you heard it, which made for many reasons why the smugglers he acquired these from so successful if hard of hearing and a little jittery.

The drawback the muffling system was the ship shook constantly as it flew, rattling everyone inside, long exposure to the rattling left the pilots jittery in all aspects of their life, Roman wasn't worried about adopting a nervous tick like that, it took pilots months or years of constant travel in one of these modified ships to end up with that, he was more concerned about his hearing, the reason the ships flew so quietly was the majority of the noise was filtered back inside the ship making the close quarters painfully loud to the occupants. The cockpit was better shielded against the noise but even then the separate compartment and his extra ear protection he struggled to blot out the noise and focus on piloting the Bullhead over Forever fall.

His passenger seemed unphased by both the noise and the constant rattle, Cinder sat in the co-pilot's seat in something that could be defined loosely as a trance.

Her eyes were partially shut and her lips moved in silence as she appeared to be in a conversation with someone, the image did go a long ways in making Roman certain that what Jaune had said might be true, the Cinder he remembered from his other life would never act this way, this one however not only acted like this in private but in the time leading up from their brief meeting two weeks earlier until now he had been required to meet with her multiple times as she wanted constant updates even if he had no real information to pass along. When he would go to meet with her sometimes she would appear her normal threatening self and others this weird semi-tranced Cinder is what he would be forced to deal with.

He could manage both but if he had to choose he would pick the original, not that it would save his life if the two came to blows but at least with the original Cinder he would understand her motives, this other tranced personality might just be fickle on day and end him because he looked at her the wrong way.

Turning to look at the instruments in front of him he noticed his GPS read that he was almost to the spot Cinder had set before they took off, adjusting the throttle and angling the ship toward the ground he set the Bullhead down in a flat open area North of the Red Forest but just in sight of the teeming mass of Grimm, so dense was the wall that it stretched to the very edge of his vision in either direction and he couldn't even gauge accurately how many Grimm could be in horde.

Cinder silently disembarked from the Bullhead and without a word to Roman left, in minutes her figure was lost from his sight as she drew closer to the horde.

He hoped she would lose control of the Grimm that they would turn on her and rip her apart, anything he could have imagined he wished to happen in this moment but as ever fate was not on his side as after a tense hour Cinder returned to the Bullhead, drenched in sweat but otherwise appearing fine.

Knowing better than to ask any questions he fired up the bullhead from the idle he had left it on and they moved farther East to the next location on the GPS, he would repeat this several times during the night each time he would look back as they took off and would watch as the roiling mass of Grimm split into two different masses, one remaining motionless but the other half moving towards the west and closer to the walls surrounding Vale.

* * *

Mercury sat in the middle of the Upper-Class district, roughly the center position of where he had placed all the canisters, he was calmly waiting for the signal to trigger the explosives he wasn't sure how long he had to wait, as last he had heard from Emerald was that the new White Fang were having issues getting Cinders Alpha's through the sewers to their designated points.

Glad to not be on the detail responsible for the Alpha's since he had seen the aftermath of what happened when one went too long without direct instructions from Cinder, there hadn't been enough left behind of the Fang fanatics to even properly identify.

The Alpha that had snapped out of Cinders Control had become berserker to a level no one could understand it had moved faster hit harder and no one had been able to restrain it let alone injure it until Cinder arrived at which point the beast became instantly docile without so much as a word or gesture from Cinder her mere presence alone was enough.

Leading the five Alpha's through the sewers was a death sentence in his mind, a fact he knew as the truth when a quick message appeared on his scroll from Emerald to tell him that she had lost contact with all five groups at almost the exact same time, now it was simply a matter of time to wait before an Alpha managed to make its own way to the surface, when that happened he was to set off the explosives and hightail it out of the district until then he simply sat on his bench and watched people as they passed by and enjoy the weather and scenery.

His scenery was something to behold at that, a Blonde Bombshell had appeared earlier in the day and the sexy blonde kept stealing glances at him since she arrived, she hadn't worked up the courage to approach him yet but that was simply a matter of time in his mind, if she didn't approach him he would approach her after he triggered the bombs, he would be the gallant hero who would save her from the horror that was about to befall the District.

So distracted was Mercury with the female blonde in front of him that he failed to notice the male watching him from nearby leaning casually against a tree and intensely scrutinizing his every action.

* * *

Neither of them could believe their luck when they spotted Mercury sitting idly on a bench seemingly without a care in the world, hastily they made a plan to watch the teen, Yang would distract him while Jaune would move close enough that if Mercury tried anything he would be ready to stop him.

Both watched from a distance as he would occasionally glance at his Scroll the most recent time he had paused long enough that he wasn't just checking the time but instead paused to read a message of some sort.

Both had tensed for action expecting Mercury to do something instead he simply laughed quietly to himself for a moment before tucking his scroll away, his posture altered though, he no longer sat calm and relaxed, now he sat with a purpose his body language altered slightly to that of someone who was focusing on listening to something far away.

Yang felt her patience slipping as she was forced to put up with their target staring at her suggestively, if anyone else had looked at her the same way they would be quickly persuaded against it, instead she was forced to act unnaturally for the sake of keeping up the appearance of someone who might be interested in the egomaniac that was Mercury Black.

Sure she had close to no interaction with him in her other life, Jaune told her how an unaltered life would play out once and she understood that the man who was currently staring at her with a sickening smug expression would have caused her considerable grief. In her own experience, the two only met once and it resulted in his death at Jaune's hand's, he was one of the many tasked to hunt them down after the fall of Signal and Jaune hadn't exactly been kind to anyone who caught up with them.

The memory even as brutal as it was brought a smile to her face and she again looked past Mercury to where her partner stood against a tree, his eyes never strayed to her, not that that offended her, he was focused on his task and did not wish to be distracted lest he miss some important action on Mercury's behalf.

While watching Jaune she watched in shock as in an instant Jaune moved, letting his aura and armor shield him as he plowed through the bench striking Mercury hard with his heavy armguard and knocking some device from his grip that looked like a modified Scroll, putting herself in the moment she dashed forward and ignoring the two men rolling on the ground in a very undignified struggle one which if they had seen Jaune fight would know was temporary at best as by the time she reached and picked up the errant scroll, and with a quick action broke one of the disposable blanks she and Jaune carried around and dropped the halves on the ground, the two men had disengaged from each other both standing tall but Mercury stood only for a moment before his left leg slipped and he found himself surprisingly on the ground once more.

In the brief interaction the two men had, Jaune had managed to cause major damage to Mercury's mechanical legs, disabling the leg one entirely.

"I don't know who you are but you are going to regret doing that!" Mercury spoke angrily even as his eyes looked at the pair of blondes trying to figure out who they were and why they attacked him, also how the male had managed to disable one of his legs leaving him vulnerable.

The two exchanged a glance and with a simple smile and a nod, the female moved away vanishing into the park.

At this point Mercury noticed a crowd was slowly gathering and were watching the two of them, sensing he might have a way out if he played the situation right.

"Help someone get this lunatic away from me, he attacked me and broke my leg." Mercury knew his voice didn't sound exactly like someone who just had his leg broken but the gullible civilians of Vale probably didn't know that and besides with his artificial legs it wasn't hard for him to have his leg bend at an awkward angle to drive the point home.

A low murmur started to sift through the crowd as people who had seen the brief conflict and were now staring at his leg as a few gasps filtered through the growing crowd.

With the crowd keeping their distance and his opponent seemingly uninterested in moving Mercury reached for his leg hoping to feel through his pant leg the broken piece and hopefully it was a simple fix of just sliding a part back in place.

Distracted momentarily with his leg he didn't see the blonde male move closer, he had only looked away for a moment he thought but now the Blonde stood crouched near him.

"Mercury Mercury Mercury, why did you do it? Sure Marcus was a scumbag who probably deserved to die but he owed a lot of favors and had a score of unfinished 'jobs' to complete."

Mercury looked at the Blonde and for the first time really looked, he was younger than himself maybe only by a year or two, his features and complexion showed him to clearly be from Vale, this told Mercury nothing though, he didn't really even know what he was looking for, maybe some huge obvious symbol of some secret society of assassins his father had belonged to but nothing the Blonde wore reminded him in any way of his father and that alone made him even more concerned.

"So what is this then? Some form of revenge from people my old man worked for? If you are going to kill me just get this over with then, you won't find me begging for my life!" Mercury tried to remain calm but for how disconcertingly calm blonde was made that difficult.

"Oh certainly I could kill you but that's not actually my goal here in Vale." Jaune looked around at the crowd his expression swapping to one of shocked concern as he locked eyes with members of the crowd before looking back to Mercury again. "Killing you with so many witnesses wouldn't exactly be the smartest thing in the world now would it?" Jaune could see his practiced lie was still working and moved ahead with it.

"Your employer, one Cinder Fall is the focus of a great deal of attention, many of your fathers more trusted employers had pointed her in his direction when she was looking for assistance, due to Marcus's death shortly after many believe that she is partly responsible for you being able to best and kill your father." Jaune had learned only a few things about Mercury in his many lives, even when he sided with the villains to try and stop their plots from the inside he never learned much about their pasts, now though with Roman's help and his experience dealing with them Jaune had a solid Idea just how to cause internal strife among the core group.

Turning Mercury against Cinder was likely impossible, well maybe not impossible but far to difficult to try, but sowing the seeds of doubt toward Emerald, that was doable, fracture their group and force Cinder, ideally, to become more and more unstable hopefully resulting in her her own self-destruction before any real harm was done.

Roman had been keeping him informed of the changes he had been noticing, and while he never witness the progression of a host himself Jaune was confident in his belief that even with the added ability to control Grimm, Cinder was a Host and maybe even of a more powerful type which might push her to become unstable faster as a result.

"If you're here for Cinder good luck, you beat me by knowing about my legs because of your own employers, they know nothing about Cinder or what she is capable of." Mercury wanted to laugh, if this punk thought he stood a chance against Cinder, he didn't know the world of pain he was in for, even now knowing the blonde likely had knowledge of himself made him understand that the kid probably wasn't overly skilled, the tackle had been sloppy but it was to get easy access to his legs, it was likely a coincidence that he had attacked when he was pulling out the scroll to be ready to activate the bombs.

Remembering the Scroll he immediately made to look for it and cursed when he saw what appeared to be the broken halves sitting in plain sight on the hard sidewalk a few yard from himself.

"Oh I have no intention of confronting Cinder, her Semblance and abilities are well known, even her... newer abilities aren't a mystery to us. No, I am merely here to observe and report and when the opportunity presented itself she sent me to collect you." Jaune purposefully slipped in the she, hoping Mercury would connect dots that didn't exist and point him to be suspicious of Emerald.

Jaune had managed to time his little display pretty perfectly as he saw the connections form in Mercury's eyes as Neo appeared from the crowd holding her Parasoul and an ice cream cone.

* * *

Yang watched from her vantage point as the help she called for arrived, she still felt uncomfortable around the mute criminal but she tried not to let her personal misgivings get to her.

They hadn't had much time to plan how they were going to deal with Mercury, the Park while not being overly crowded was a terrible place to flat out murder the man, so they had opted to let him escape after Jaune had a chance to speak with him and sow a little doubt and fabricate a lie that would keep the teen paranoid and on edge.

They didn't know if Neo was available so far as Roman had told them she sounded free so they brought her in with a quick message saying she needed to save Mercury, simple as that.

Now Yang watched as Jaune acted out a fight with Neo while Mercury set to patching his leg.

From where she stood it looked like Neo was putting her all into the fight and from what she knew of her she expected nothing else, the diminutive criminal kept assaulting Jaune who took the attacks in stride sometimes letting himself be pushed back and other times he would send her backwards with a well timed swing of his blade, when Mercury got back to his feet Jaune stepped it up and when Mercury joined in beside Neo thinking to kill his attacker Jaune began to punish Mercury wholesale until the point when Mercury having been soundly beaten called for Neo to help him escape.

Yang smiled as the first Jump only got them a few Dozen yards, she hadn't explained that Jaune would need a way out too but she understood that without saying after working with Roman, Jaune was last seen giving chase in the direction the flashes happened both he and his opponents eventually being lost deeper in the park, not a moment too soon as Vale police were now arriving on the scene.

* * *

Velvet sat with her team, guard duty boring Coco and herself to tears while their male companions seemed content with the simple straightforward assignment.

Coco had been light on details about this assignment, Professor Oobleck had assigned them as well as a few other second year teams and every third year team to a guard assignment, details were sparse before the assignment but now that they stood on the wall watching over both Vale and their current location the Forest of Forever Fall, it was hard not to miss the absence of Veteran Huntsmen.

That wasn't to say there weren't any on the wall but there was maybe four huntsmen they had seen the entire day, and of those four they all looked pensive and worried particularly after the midway point of the day.

Hours rolled by into mid afternoon and while the students were becoming increasingly bored even they felt like something was wrong, the Veteran Huntsmen now stood in a group, several third-year team leaders approached them and if they got any answer they didn't share.

Velvet now watched Coco approach the group intent on at least trying to get an answer, though she was wished luck all four men seemed of the breed to never divulge information, hard faced and weathered through decades of service to Vale.

With the two men of her team distracted with their duty and Coco away, Velvet quickly pulled out her scroll and with the simple intention to check the time, figuring it was well past the time this job was supposed to have been done. When she unlocked her Scroll though it displayed the time which was as she thought was well past the time they were to have been relieved, but the Scroll displayed an emblem she only ever saw when they had Jobs that took them and their teacher escort to far off Border towns where reception was suspect at best, but now here in the heart of Vale, within direct line of sight of the Tower her Scroll had no Signal.

Looking at the Tower from this distance it looked the same as always, a Pillar that stood higher than any other structure, entirely intact not even any Bullheads or the like flying around it to maybe indicate some form of emergency, just the quiet pillar.

"So what time is it Velvet?"

Velvet spun to face her leader how was standing behind her, Velvet was always surprised by exactly how sneaky Coco could be with her heeled boots doubly so considering how much of an advantage she had in the hearing department. "Uh, sorry Coco, I didn't mean to I was just curious about the time, I know it's against the team rules."

With a crooked smile, Coco plucked Velvets Scroll from her hands and turned it to face herself. "Hmm, a little past Three, Oobleck told us we would have been relieved by the regular Huntsmen shortly after Lunch when they were done with their meeting or whatever." Coco handed the Scroll back and turned to face the forest her crooked smile vanishing and being replaced with on of thought. "This is damn suspicious."

"Maybe their meeting has just run long, and with the CCT being down they couldn't tell anyone."

"What do you mean the CCT is down?" Coco looked to the Tower expecting it to be fire or worse.

"My Scroll, it has no signal is all I mean, I happen's all the time when we go on our missions but I have never seen the symbol while inside Vale." Velvet pulled out the scroll and showed proof that if was currently disconnected with the network.

Coco saw the emblem displaced on her partners Scroll and fished her's out to check and it displayed the same symbol of disconnection.

"Velvet check with the boys, see if their scrolls are the same." Coco watched as her partner dashed off to follow her orders, she looked at her Scroll and to test to see if it was down she dialed her partner. Coco watched as Velvet stopped mid conversation with her teammates and looked at her Scroll she stared at it confused for a moment before turning to look at the caller before answering the ringing device.

"Uh, hello Coco..."

The sound of Velvets voice came through crisp and clear, the same way it always did, the disconnect symbol was still present however and couldn't be explained.

The mystery behind the odd disconnect symbol would have to wait as a loud siren began to sound all along the wall, louder and longer than anyone had ever experienced, after the first piercing note it volume diminished slightly but the sound continued playing on repeat.

Everyone present knew what the Siren meant, Grimm, though normally it was a short blast that signalled where the Grimm were along the wall, the long persistent wail from every speaker was something none appeared to understand its meaning, that was until the wall of Grimm spilled out from the trees of Forever Fall and charged towards the wall, the space between Wall and forest was kept clear of tree's or any cover for roughly a hundred meters.

The Grimm were halfway across that before the defenders sprung to action, the Senior huntsmen split apart and began issuing orders to the nearby teams, tense order was formed and the Huntsmen on the Wall began to rain destruction down on the Grimm approaching the wall, the hail of Dust and Bullets seemingly had no lasting effect as the numbers were simply too great to have any real effect on the horde which those on the wall couldn't even grasp, as the Grimm stretched as far as their eyes could see in either direction and they were still pouring from the forest.

Velvet watched this through the lens of her Camera as she took another Photo of Coco before summoning an astral copy of her leader's weapon and took position beside her and rained down the equally deadly fire.

* * *

Qrow watched from his position in concern, the combined Vale and Atlas forces had been fighting the entire day and were exhausted.

The Grimm numbers had been decimated by the force of huntsmen that had attacked but from the outset, things have not gone according to plan, the amount of Grimm had been grossly underestimated but still were a more than manageable amount especially with the heavy Dust users amount the Atlas troops.

Instead of facing a horde of around fifteen hundred Grimm the number was more along the lines of Three thousand, even with planning and taking into account the extra ones that would have naturally flocked to the horde on their own, doubling in number in only two weeks was not something Grimm could do.

To make matters worse was the Grimm not bunching together tightly to allow the Dust users to kill huge numbers with their more simple abilities, occasionally a group would bunch up and be dealt with but the Grimm going against their normal behavior stayed spread out so that each had to be dealt with individually.

This change in behavior was causing serious issues for the huntsmen.

The heavy Dust users were either exhausted physically or on there Dust supply.

Qrow's eyes drifted to the last remaining Dust user still active, Amber stood surrounded by a Dozen veteran Huntsmen who dealt with any Grimm that strayed too close to her.

While being her 'Chaperone' it was best unless otherwise decided for him to remain away from her or really any other fighters general vicinity, instead he watched the operation from a distance growing more agitated and concerned with every passing minute.

Amber didn't rely on Dust but even with that problem circumvented by her Maiden powers she still only had limited Stamina and to Qrow he could tell she was nearing her limit as she was drenched in sweat, more than anyone else even those who have been fighting in melee all day did not look nearly as terrible as Amber did.

 _Grimm behaving oddly, out of Dust, and only a matter of time before someone makes a fatal mistake and we start losing Huntsmen, this is no good, we have to retreat._

Heading towards the rally area he relayed instructions to those present.

"What are you doing?" Winter who had been leading the Atlas troops broke off and approached Qrow when he appeared from where he had been observing the fight. She was unsure why one of Ozpins most trusted Huntsmen wasn't participating in the combat and to see him appear and hurriedly issue order caused her concern.

"We are ending the operation." Qrow spared a few words to the Atlas specialist in between his other instructions to the Bullhead pilots and runners who were at the Rally point.

"Has there been word to halt the attack?"

"No, I'm making the decision to end this before any Huntsmen get hurt." Qrow hadn't explicitly been left in charge of the forces but everyone present outside on the Atlas personnel knew his name and valued his opinion and would follow his orders to a certain point.

Winter was about to argue when she finally took a look around the rally point and noticed the mass of bodies dotting the area, over half the Huntsmen committed to the operation were already here, not because of Qrow's orders but due to exhaustion, it wasn't just Vale personnel either, a portion of her own troops were mixed in the mass of people as well having been pushed hard by her the entire day and had dutifully been swapping themselves out but clearly looked to be ready to drop to the ground in exhaustion, the only thing keep them on their feet was likely pride.

"Agreed, have you informed Ozpin of our status yet?"

"Uh, now that you mention it Ozpin hasn't contacted me in several hours." Qrow pulled out his scroll and looked at it for the first time in many hours, missing a Call from Ozpin wasn't the worst thing in on Remnant to do but he hadn't simply missed the calls for updates his Scroll had no pending messages at all.

Feeling an uneasy sensation take hold in the back of his mind he quickly unlocked his Scroll and hit the emergency button and the simply flashed with a No Signal Message.

* * *

Deep in the woods a Forever fall a man sat beside a Bullhead, looking at the contraption with a pleased expression, his mustache broadening his already wide smile as his device performed its task perfectly, not that he expected it to do anything but operate perfectly.

He had slight apprehension about the power source though, an old overused Bullhead with a frightening degree of safety-compromising adjustments wasn't his ideal power source particularly since he had had no time to test it in advance.

His Signal Interceptor was working perfectly, it wasn't just blocking the communication between those in the Forest and Vale but he was also able to read and respond to the messages to prolong this charade even longer.

Now though it was early evening, pulling out his watch 7:45 to be exact and his deception had been found out to an extent, he was still hidden and Vale wasn't going to find the Bullhead and investigate it, an explosive that was slowly counting down to zero would take care of that loose end as the Bullhead was not fit to fly ever again.

Arthus Watts walked calmly into the forest towards another waiting vehicle that would carry him away from this dreadful place and to somewhere more comfortable.

Casually as an explosion rocked the landscape behind him signaling the destruction of the modified Bullhead, he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a scroll similar to one two blondes had stolen from a grey hair teen earlier today.

"Well, better safe than sorry." Arthur pressed the single button to activate the Sap bombs hidden inside Vale, with his Jammer out of the way the signal transmitted through the CCT and all throughout the Upper-Class district a red mist rapidly shrouded the area in a miasma.

* * *

 **And so it begins!**

 **A huge number of moving parts coming together for this.**

 **Not much to say about this chapter it's just a slew of lead in's and setup for what will be coming next.**

 **Qrow and Winter's forces are exhausted and won't even be reaching the City before the Grimm, instead, they will show up exhausted out of dust and entirely unprepared for the Chaos that will be unfolding before them.**

 **So yeah, not much I can say really.**

* * *

 _Jaune didn't know exactly how things had turned out like this, his plan had been simple, follow everyone at least once after the fall of Beacon find out how their lives played out before they would meet again so many months later._

 _It had been hard the first couple lives, abandoning Ruby, Ren, and Nora but he was looking at the big picture and they always managed to make it to Haven unharmed, actually without him stopping them from having his weapons and armor improved they would encounter the first burned out village entirely intact as they would arrive day's earlier._

 _The would spend time there and the once the Bandit mess is cleared up, at least for the time being they would travel to Haven with others, They would still meet up with Qrow when Tyrian attacked them and Ren would deal with the Nucklevee Grimm._

 _Jaune had spent a life with both Weiss and Yang, now he was preparing to leave Menagrie with Blake after experiencing the events Blake dealt with.  
_

 _Sun hadn't come along like he had learned he did in other lives Jaune figured he was the cause of that change as Sun likely only followed her to make sure she wasn't going to do something stupid, with Jaune present Sun seemingly returned to Haven with his team.  
_

 _Ghira treated him fairly as he was Blake's friend but made little effort to interact with him, Jaune was fine with that, the giant Faunus caused him to sweat any time he felt the man's gaze fell on him, Jaune wondered how the obviously infatuated Sun Wukong managed to handle the man._

 _Though from stories he told on other lives Ghira would become increasingly more tolerant of the Monkey Faunus, likely due to his injuries and Blake no doubt stepping in on his behalf._

 _The other set of eye's, Kali Belladonna, concerned Jaune to no end._

 _The woman was obviously infatuated with the idea that Blake had brought home her Boyfriend to meet the parents._

 _Jaune had attempted to quash the idea from the start and Blake attempted to help but Kali seemed to be convinced of just the opposite, she didn't even care that he wasn't Faunus, the idea that her daughter was dating overrode everything else even if that was entirely wrong._

 _Now they were preparing to leave Menagerie, nothing was left here to do, Blake came for what she wanted to do, their adventure on the Faunus Isle was ended and they were heading to Haven to find Adam, or at least that's what Blake's goal was, Jaune wanted to reach Haven to join up with the other's Blake was always the last to arrive and he was anxious to start._

 _Jaune stood nearby as Ghira and Kali said their farewells to their daughter, when Blake turned to him Ghira sent him a meaningful glance, not one of piercing scrutiny that had been the norm for the entire visit, this one was a look of respect._

 _"Ready to go Jaune?" Blake asked as she stopped next to him and the plank that would take them up to the ship they would travel on._

 _"Yep, all set." Jaune lifted his backpack and weapon and turned to follow only to be stopped by the stationary Blake._

 _"Jaune..." Blake quickly came forward and planted her lips on his cheek, a quick chaste kiss. "Thank you for following me, and giving me the courage to go back."_

 _Jaune stood stuck to the spot for a moment before a squeal of excitement was heard not far away, that and a low growl, sensing his life might be at stake Jaune pushed past Blake who had already started up the ramp._

 _Following along behind him more slowly was Blake, happy that Jaune had been chased away by her father so that the Blonde would not notice the flush that had stuck to her face since the short chaste kiss that had only been meant as a thank you but the act of doing so brought out other emotions..._

* * *

 **One of Jaune's many lives, no real character building to be had, or tie into the chapter like I usually do this is just one of the requested flashbacks enough people have asked for.**

 **I didn't add much to it as I don't see much happening outside of what would occur if Jaune simply replaced Sun, Kali would be Kali and Ghira would be Ghira, also we simply don't know what would happen on the island post Volume 4 and I'm not inclined to guess.**

 **Now I need to finish the Chapter of ADVENT Failure I have half done so I can focus on this for the next few days without any other stories to distract me.**


	29. Chapter 29

Jaune knew stopping Mercury wasn't going to be the gear that derailed Cinders entire plan, that was never the case, there was always a fallback or a contingency or if he stopped enough schemes she would disappear and bide her time and strike later.

Cinder really had no choice in this life or any other, she was beholden to Salem and nothing would or could change that, he had tried, not hard at first but eventually he gave his most hated enemy an honest shot at redemption and she repaid that with a pillar of fire.

Jaune pushed the errant thoughts from his mind as he picked himself off the ground where he had landed moments earlier from a powerful backhand by an enraged Alpha Grimm. The impact had rattled his mind and left him thinking useless thoughts. Once more on his feet, he watched the Ursa as Yang exchanged blows with it.

 _This is ridiculous, an Ursa Alpha is not this strong or durable._

Jaune's eyes flitted across the Grimm's hide, the beast was marked with numerous wounds, none fatal on their own but the amount of damage he and Yang had dealt collectively should have rendered the beast immobile long ago, instead it seemed to just get angrier, faster, and stronger it would have a limit but whether it reached it's limit before he and Yang met their's was Jaune's concern.

His stamina was already fading and he wasn't sure about Yang but she looked taxed as well as she fell back from the beast as it recklessly crashed through a fountain, the cement structure barely hindering it.

 _One Alpha is taking two of the strongest Huntsmen in Vale to simply distract it away from civilians at this point, we can't do enough damage to kill the damn thing in one go._

Jaune was frustrated with his own fight but he was more concerned about the other four Alpha's that Roman had told him about, if Yang and himself couldn't deal with one between the two of them then what chance did others have.

The Ursa having lost track of Yang in its charge through the Fountain found a new target in Jaune as its eyes locked onto him again.

Jaune stood ready to dodge its attacks, blocking or parrying well out of the realm of possibility as he had already tried that multiple times each ending with his ass firmly introduced to a new piece of ground.

The Ursa charged, previously the speed had been catching him off guard, no Ursa, Alpha or otherwise had ever moved that fast before and he had paid for it, now though Jaune knew that he could react in time.

Dodge, slash, repeat. Jaune performed the actions with mechanical precision now that he was comfortable with the Usra's speed. Stronger and faster but no real improvement in the way it attacked, simple swipes or charges.

Jaune piled on the damage gradually he still had to be careful of multiple things but the fact Yang hadn't rejoined the fight after so many minutes had him concerned and against his better judgment, he moved in closer than before trying to get a clean shot at the Grimm's neck, hoping to sever something vital.

Just as Jaune was about to step in a Horn sounded nearby, not the ever-present wail of Vale's sirens that had been repeating none stop for well over an hour now, this was a loud crisp bleat of a large truck sounding an air horn.

Jaune barely had time to dive out of the way as the giant delivery truck crashed into the side of the Grimm, while he was picking himself off the ground Jaune noticed his blade was missing, a quick scan of his area turned up no sight of it. Rapidly getting to his feet he turned to see Yang walking back towards him with a grin, resting on her shoulder was his blade which she had somehow appropriated while he dove out of the path of the truck, the weapon was used to great effect as behind Yang and the destroyed truck was a rapidly dying Ursa, it neck cut open from side to side and it struggled feebly to crawl out from under the truck.

Before Yang had even handed him back his blade the movements had stopped entirely and the monstrosity began to slowly disintegrate.

"Well, that was simple enough." Yang said with a smile even though she panted heavily and her clothes were in tatters, Jaune also noticed Yang was bleeding from her left arm and the half of Ember Celica that was on that arm looked broken beyond repair. The Ammunition housing was exposed and sat empty but on top of that, the firing mechanism looked crushed.

"Yeah, simple." Jaune rolled his eyes he knew Yang wasn't serious that fight had taken more out of both of them either cared to admit. "Is the secondary function on your gauntlet still working?" Jaune indicated her left arm.

"Yeah, I think so anyways, the housing is still intact." Yang brought the weapon up for Jaune to inspect.

"Good, it still looks intact and clear of damage, I have a feeling we might need both shots if we run across any more Alpha's before reinforcements get here."

Both blonde's turned their attention toward Beacon, Yang had sent the distress call the moment the Sirens sounded, while Pyrrha and Blake had promised to be here as soon as they could they both knew that they were going to be on their own for awhile, until they encountered the Ursa tearing its way through a literal China shop and spent the better part of an hour fighting it they hadn't been overly concerned with the concept, neither had anticipated the level of danger to be this high.

They had seen the Bullheads in the distance depart from Beacon and they had headed their way but no huntsmen had flooded into the district weapons swinging to help the pair deal with their opponent, likely every available Huntsman had been sent to the wall to hold off the horde, Pyrrha, and Blake as well, as they would likely be under the command of the teachers of Beacon.

"So? Do we head to the wall and the big battle or hunt down the other Alpha's?" Yang looked at him waiting for his answer.

"The Alpha's are our priority, no one is coming to deal with them, they are too focused on the wall to even know about the threat behind them." Jaune's reasoning was sound, and if they approached the wall they would just be dragged into the larger battle and who knew how many lives would be lost to the four remaining Berserk Alpha's.

With their decision made they moved out of the park back towards the more populated areas of the district hoping to hear of find signs of another Grimm.

Reaching the edge of the park they both heard the sound of gunfire coming from a nearby block, both ran pushing their tired bodies forward and rounding a corner seeing further down the street was an extremely tall and muscular Beowulf, the Grimm's back to them focused forward on the direction the gunfire was coming from.

"Use one, we won't have a better chance than this to catch one so distracted." Jaune spoke and with a nod of understanding, Yang ran ahead of him quickly widening the gap as he slowed his pace.

As he watched Yang she became infused with her Semblance even at his current distance he felt the air around him heat up by a few degree's he doubted he would have been able to breathe if she was right beside him. The distance between Yang and Grimm shrank rapidly and as she leapt into the air behind the beast she pulled back her left arm and it was encased in blue and gold dust, a powerful combination and one that no one utilized, at least not yet, Weiss would figure out the mixture if she survived long enough and would he heralded as a prodigy on dust manipulation, merging and combining the effects of different types of dust in more subtle ways than anyone previously before her.

Jaune didn't want to steal that from Weiss as it made her her own person, someone untouchable even by her own father, so he had sworn Yang to secrecy about her final trump card, the fact that Jaune had to carefully mix the canister for ever shot meant Yang had little practice with the ability but Jaune had simplified it as much as he could so that it would be a simple thing to use that no one would expect or likely survive.

As the dust cleared and the heat faded Jaune made his way closer to the encounter, he frowned when he realized the Grimm was still not only alive but actively fighting still.

 _It should not have been able to withstand that, no matter how berserk it was..._

Jaune got a clean look at the Grimm as he moved closer and was not sure how it had survived the attack but also knew it did by only the smallest of margins and clearly looked to be not long for the world.

The huge Beowulf was missing it's right arm entirely, it lay on the ground slowly dissolving, all along its back huge slashes crisscrossed at jagged angles and the Grimm swayed wildly with the immediate drastic loss of blood that was pouring from its wounds but it still persisted in its attack. It's target, however, was not Yang, it continued to assault the mystery opponent in front of itself.

* * *

Pyrrha stood on the wall and while she was actively engaged with holding the wall of Grimm back her attention was split, she was focused on her task at hand but her eyes constantly scanned the wall in search of her missing team leader and partner.

Blake and herself had responded to their call immediately and were two of the first to arrive at the Bullhead docks, their early arrival, however, did not exactly earn them anything as they were called upon by Professor Port to be the first reinforcements to the Wall. The Professor didn't listen to their mention of Alpha's already past the wall and when they tried to call Jaune or Yang to prove it neither would answer their Scroll. with no other option, the two girls were sent to the wall as they had no real choice in the matter.

Once at the wall and when the fighting became the fiercest Pyrrha covered for Blake allowing the stealthy Faunus to slip away from the fighting and sneak into the district to hopefully find what had become of their partners.

Pyrrha was pulled back to the fight as a pair of Beowulf's crested the wall where she stood, both marked with multiple wounds from gunfire already, thinking to preserve her stamina she rapidly shifted her weapon into its Rifle form and with two simple shots knocked both Grimm from the wall. Her bullets weren't likely to have killed the beasts she was more interested in keeping the wall clear so that those who could rain down heavier damage could do so with safety.

Sending one more glance into the city she turned to the wall intent on giving it her full attention and hoped that the day would find not only herself but her teammates safe when everything was said and done.

* * *

The withdraw from the forest had been costly, the Grimm seemed to sense a change in atmosphere and pushed their advantage against the Huntsmen lines as they retreated to the rally area.

Few were in any real condition to fight such a battle and if anyone was cut off there would likely be no escape for them.

Qrow finally took to battle, being fresh since he had kept himself away from the others during the entire day the figure he cut against the backdrop of Grimm was a sight to inspire confidence in those who were falling away from the fight.

Qrow had no hopes of stalling for long, the numbers were too great and he was merely fighting the tip of the spear as it were, bring his scythe to bear, each swing ended multiple Grimm as they tried to get past his position.

"Qrow, get out of there!"

He heard a voice shouting but he ignored it multiple Bullheads were still on the ground exhausted Huntsmen piling into them.

"God damn it he's going to get himself killed." Winter left the safety of her Bullhead intent on dragging the Huntsman away to one of the Bullheads.

A strong arm attached to a blonde man she didn't recognize stopped her before she had even made it off the ramp of the Bullhead both occupied.

"Qrow is gonna be fine, you going out there with some half-baked idea of saving him will likely only get both of you hurt." Taiyang spoke calmly and from experience, knowing full well that Qrow was fine, as long as he was left alone.

"And who are you to know this?" Winter inspected the man.

"Taiyang Xiao Long. Qrow and I were teammates a long time ago and like I said before, you going out there is just going to get you both hurt."

Winter looked at Qrow who was rapidly getting surrounded by Grimm and back at the man holding her from going to his aid, it only took an instant for her to decide her course of action, she pulled out of the man's grip and moved down the ramp, or that was her plan anyway, she broke his grip that was certain but she was instantly grabbed again this time in an uncomfortably tight grip that seemed to sap the strength from her body.

Taiyang pulled the limp form of Winter back up the ramp ignoring the stares he received from those onboard who watched the interaction. Tai hoped he wasn't making a huge mistake, he knew about Qrow's other abilities but when your Semblance is bad luck every time his friend put himself at risk like this might be the last time as well, as the Bullhead door slid closed he couldn't tear his eye's off where Qrow fought.

Qrow had lost track of the Bullheads and with the noise the horde of Grimm was making, he wasn't even sure if they had all managed to leave yet as the only thing he could hear anymore were the deep guttural growls and snarls from his opponents.

Figuring it was time to make his escape Qrow began swinging his weapon in ever increasing swirls and arcs killing any Grimm within the sweep of the weapon and forcing the others behind those further back. With a gap formed Qrow kicked off with as high a leap as he could, when he felt his momentum stop he vanished from sight replaced by a large Black Crow that pumped his powerful wings and strained to put even more distance between it and the ground, Qrow was rarely attacked by Grimm in the form but he didn't care to be near the roiling horde as the odd behaviour made him concerned they might attack even this form when they would otherwise leave it alone.

Once he reached a comfortable height he turned his gaze downward and stared at the mass of Grimm wondering what they would do now that they lacked an enemy. Looking at the mass Qrow watched in silent horror as the Grimm had already turned seemingly in unison after he had left them and pointed themselves West heading as quickly as they could towards Vale.

Pumping his wings with as much effort as his form allowed Qrow angled toward the Southwest hoping if he pushed himself he could beat the wave of Grimm to the wall and give the defenders of Vale time to prepare not knowing that was a pointless gesture as the walls of Vale were already fully engulfed in conflict already.

* * *

Mercury had been left stranded on the third story roof of some upscale beauty salon my Neo, he didn't mind it took him away from any possibility of encountering one of the Alpha's they had released. It did have the drawback that he was nearly deafened when the sirens did their original loud blast as the roof of the building was also home to a siren terminal, though it was designed to be a part of the building's overall design which was why he hadn't seen it beforehand.

Now it sat behind him a broken and twist heap of metal.

Mercury had done a more thorough job of inspecting his legs and repairing them after Neo had deposited him on the roof but it also allowed him time to think.

 _Who is the 'She' in question, Cinder is out of the question, why would she attack her own people. That leave's Neo and Emerald. Neo saved me from the park and the blonde man who crippled my leg. If she wanted me out of the way all she would have had to do is not interfere, the bastard beat the two of us back with ease so he would have had no issue with any of Vale's police, there is the chance the two are working together but Neo is loyal to only one person and that is Roman, as much as I wouldn't put it past Roman to act against Cinder if the right incentive was handed to him that incentive would have to be considerable considering what I know Cinder was paying the man for his services and his stipulation that he remain concealed from being seen attached to any of their jobs._

 _No Roman and Neo were out of the Question as a simple leaked photo or tip and Roman's face would be all over the Vale news and the Criminal had worked very hard to keep it that way._

 _The only leaves Emerald though..._

Mercury sat on the rooftop deep in thought his legs repaired and ready to take him anywhere he needed to go but considering he had no order's he chose to take the time to consider what he really knew about Emerald and what his associate really stood to earn at Cinders side, both working for her or against her.

* * *

 **Ozpin's Office, Shortly before the Siren's sounded.  
**

"Thank you Oobleck." Ozpin accepted a portfolio from his temporary assistant that highlighted the students that would soon be arriving at Beacon in preparation for the Vytal festival later this year.

The names and schools inside held little interest to Ozpin, normally they would but at the moment his attention wasn't on the paperwork he was attempting to distract himself with it was with the Battle that would be happening far to the North in Forever Fall, Qrow had been sending updates at regular intervals all day detailing how the fight was proceeding and by all accounts everything was going perfectly according to plan.

The only change in the plan was the numbers had apparently been wrong there was more Grimm out in the forest than they had initially guessed and Qrow and the others in command of the mission had informed him that they would be gone longer than expected.

Having no real reason to say no to such a simple request Ozpin had returned to his office and tried to distract himself.

The distraction was failing though, his eyes constantly went to his clock and while he was still receiving updates something about them seemed wrong he just couldn't quite say what.

"Bartholemew, do you also feel that something isn't right?"

"A great many things, but I assume you are referring to the communications sent from those fighting in the forest."

Ozpin nodded.

"While I may not know Mr. Branwen as well as you, he does not strike me as the most punctual of individuals, in either time or grammar."

"No, he would definitely not be either of those things I agree."

"Then his messages are likely what is causing you to worry, at last count we have eight messages from Mr. Branwen since Noon, each message exactly twenty minutes apart, his next one will be arriving in seven minutes."

Ozpin sat at his desk, he never new Qrow to be punctual like that, that was Glynda or Oobleck levels of professionalism that Qrow never had, the two men waited in silence for the seven minutes to elapse and as the clock shifted to three exactly a new message appeared on Ozpin's monitor, typed out perfectly.

Ozpin stood from his desk and grabbed his cane as he quickly came around the front.

"Contact Peter, have him get the Bullheads any and all we have ready for departure immediately, then contact the reserves we have on standby get them up to speed on the situation in the Forest, also pull any none essential personnel from the wall and have them report to Beacon as well, send the remaining second years to cover their positions." Ozpin's mind raced through the possibilities of what could be happening in the forest, Qrow would never respond like that and he cursed inwardly that he felt something was wrong earlier and yet couldn't place what it was.

Both men stepped into the elevator, Oobleck typing away on a tablet and sending out his headmasters instructions, the door slid open and Ozpin stepped out to the main control room on the CCT, the room was quiet and calm, spotting the woman he knew to be in charge Ozpin made to cross the room to speak with her about someone maybe interfering with the message system.

He hadn't made it halfway across the room when even those inside could hear a faint siren in the distance, the noise was replaced as an alarm inside the room sounded as well and the room exploded into action, technicians, formerly standing around chatting or filing the odd bits of paperwork rushed to their terminals to figure out the source of the siren and dealt with what it meant.

Avoiding the commotion the room had descended into Ozpin looked at his now Vibrating Scroll it being fed the same information that was likely being displayed on nearby monitors.

"Oobleck! Change of plans Send everything we have to the Northern walls." Ozpin turned and left the room as it devolved into an organized chaos as the technicians and terminal operators set about their jobs that if he remained would just be in there way.

"Sir, what about those in the forest?"

Ozpin stood in silent contemplation as the men rode the elevator to the base of the tower. "The wall's come first, the huntsmen out there are on their own for the time being, they are some of our best and brightest, we will have to trust that they are managing on their own. Keep trying to contact them though, Send Peter with the first group to the walls and you take charge of the organization and distribution of Huntsmen."

"Very good, and where will you be?"

"I am sure the Council will be looking to speak with me shortly so I will be returning to my office once I refill my cup."

* * *

She appeared exhausted, panting for breath and drenched in sweat. Cinder looked nothing like Roman ever remembered, in his other life he doubted if dirt had ever touched the surface of her skin for how impeccably flawless she managed to appear at all times.

Now after a full day of, well Roman wasn't exactly sure what, Cinder stood covered in dirt and grime.

Roman toyed with the idea multiple times of placing Melodic Cudgel against the base of her skull while she was distracted and pulling the trigger, some broken part of is mind, the part that seemed all to in favor of him throwing his life away if it meant killing her egged him on to try. The tiny voice was usually easy to ignore as Cinder had always radiated such power that giving into the voice would only spell his own death.

Now the voice had traction, Cinder was visibly exhausted, having seen her return to the Bullhead multiple times looking further and further taxed he wanted nothing more to give into the voice in his head.

The only thought staying his hand from the action was the consequences of a failed action, if he didn't kill her he was certainly dead nothing would change that. If it was just his life in question he would probably take the shot, he honestly probably would have months ago when he first met Cinder again in this life if a failure meant just his life ending, it wouldn't, Neo would be next and honestly, his psychotic partner would never forgive him either.

Pushing the voice of revenge deeper into his mind he stepped out from the cover the Bullhead engine provided him from the dying sunlight.

"We done out here yet Cinder?"

"..."

"Great stuck in another Trance again? Should I just drag you on board by your ankle then, we really should be getting out of here."

"..."

"I'm starting the Bullhead, if your not snapped out of this before I get back I'm dragging you inside and taping you to the loudest part of the cargo area." Roman Scowled in frustration, Cinder had given him a timetable to keep and the one time he had almost missed it today he felt like it was close to costing him his life instead he just felt a few years bleed away in the tense moments.

their list was done and all they had to do now was get somewhere safe to hide for the next few days, Entering Vale was out of the question and for how short notice the agenda was given to him and the final portion of the plan particularly the massive army of Grimm he hadn't had time to find a safe spot outside of Vale they could hole up for a day or two, let alone contact the Blonde's and give them a heads up on the Army of Grimm headed their way.

 _They are tough and resourceful they will be fine, plus Neo is free if they need help._

The Bullheads engines roared to life just as Cinder slide the panel to the cockpit open.

"Bout time you snapped ... 'ghgk'" Roman found his airway restricted as a black tendril snaking out from Cinders shoulder wrapped around it, tighter than anything he was ever felt.

Cinder stepped into the cockpit completely, Roman looked desperately at her as he brought his arms up to struggle against the tendril that was crushing his throat.

The Crushing feeling stopped as his fingers made contact with the tendril of, well, Roman wasn't really sure.

He could breathe again albeit with great effort, as his neck was no longer being crushed but it was still uncomfortably tight.

Trying to relax Roman stared at Cinders back and immediately wished he hadn't, between her shoulder blades flowed a viscous black pus that seemed to be stretching the skin attempting to push past the thin barrier and spill out.

Somehow sensing his gaze Cinder turned to face him, her movements quick and jittery, no smooth motions were made, every movement had a powerful force behind it and an immediate jarring stop.

With her turning to face him one horrifying image was replaced by another, Cinder's face was no longer her own, instead of her attractive visage he was met with a black visage of a Grimm he had never seen before, it had a too wide mouth filled with more teeth than he could count, an odd set of mandibles moved with its breath a trail of some greenish fluid dripping from one.

With quick jarring movements, whatever this was scanned his entire body from an uncomfortably close distance before it's mouth split into a shape one could loosely describe as a smile, horrifying as that was, and with the smile completed it looked him dead in the eyes.

"Ssssseeeecccccrrrrrreeeeeetttttttt..."

With the utterance of the single word the tendril around his neck tightened to a frightening degree that Roman began to feel his neck buckling under the pressure before it all stopped at once.

Roman saw stars pop in his eyesight as he struggled to draw air into his deprived lungs, he wasn't sure how long it was before he could breathe or let alone see clearly but when he recovered Cinder stepped into the Cockpit moments after and without so much as a word to him settled into her chair and lost herself into a trance once again.

* * *

 **And another one!**

 **Buncha stuff is happening.**

 **1) I teased Yang's extra weapon addition her and Jaune did forever ago. (See I didn't forget about it.)**

 **2) They are about to maybe, possibly get some reinforcements to deal with the rest of the Alphas. (Who is that mystery Huntsman or Huntress) [Betcha a couple of you will make the right guess]**

 **3)Qrow, Winter, Taiyang still in the forest but at least on their way back. (With another army of Grimm also)**

 **4)Mercury starting to doubt Emerald, what might that cause. (Probably some stuff I already have planned.)**

 **5)Also what the fuck's up with Cinder's skin, she should really have someone take a look at that.**

 **Heh fun chapter to write, it was actually interesting to try and make the Alpha's a challenge for Yang and Jaune, Having them basically lose their shit after being under Cinders control for so long that it puts them in a Berserker state was a fun way to go about that and it gives the two an actual challenge.**

 **Not much else to say, a lot going on ATM and I'm putting ADVENT Failure on hold while I do this, though If my Beta gets's done with it I might have chapter two of my new story up sometime this weekend.**

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 **Or don't I'm not your boss I can't tell you what to do!**


	30. Chapter 30

The Struggle had been growing since shortly after she had managed to tame the Alpha's, it hadn't been readily apparent at the outset and there were times in between where she hadn't felt anything at all.

Her body was her own and her prisoner was under her control, but there were other times where she felt detached from her own actions, like she was simply a passenger or a silent observer to her bodies actions. It was hard to tell in those instances, when she felt that way she would always snap awake from her meditations, no longer able to sleep at all, and she would always be where she remembered, time would elapse but she expected that as she was using the meditations to replace her sleep.

This most recent time of disconnection had seen herself attack Roman, that clearly wasn't the case, if she had attacked him there is no way he would be flying the two of them so nonchalantly North further beyond Forever Fall. Likely to some safe house of Roman's or at least somewhere the two could stay until it was safe for them to return to Vale without too much visible scrutiny.

Cinder vaguely wondered what it was like in Vale right now, if the walls had been breached yet or how much damage her Berserker Alpha's had caused. Rapidly her vague thoughts vanished replaced but her ever-present hunger, she hadn't eaten much at all today the Grimm likely had sustained her as loathe as she was to admit it she had gorged herself the past few days leading up to the attack, taking in so many calories that she figured she consumed her body mass twice over, not that her figure showed any change, but the thought of it even made herself sick remembering it.

She had apparently burned through the calories and then some though as pangs of hunger began to fill her mind, nothing concerning yet but she knew it was only a matter of time before she could no longer ignore the growing sensation.

/~/

Roman wasn't sure exactly what had happened, Cinder, or more likely the whatever was inside her attacked him.

Roman's collar hid his no doubt impressive looking bruise and he was glad Cinder went into her meditative trance immediately, had she asked him a question or expected him to speak at all he doubted he could manage more than a croak or whisper of noise right now as he was still feeling the effects of having his throat crushed.

His throat wasn't his concern, neither was the horror show he had just been an unwilling witness too. Roman true concern was his left arm, he hadn't paid attention to much during the short exchange with whatever that was but now that he was in the air his arm felt on fire.

With a quick glance at Cinder to make sure she was still tranced out Roman quickly rolled up his sleeve and inspected his arm.

The skin on the arm was singed like it had been engulfed in fire, a quick short burst of flame, not enough to cause serious harm to his limb just enough that it had destroyed the softer fabric shirt under his much heavier coat.

The implication of the burn and the destroyed shirt was not lost on Roman, whatever was inside Cinder knew he was responsible for destroying the glove that held the leeching Grimm Cinder had tried to use on the Maiden.

 _So you keep my secret and I keep yours? We both have quite a bit to lose if either of us is discovered to bad for you, whatever you are, you are attached to the woman I'm set to kill.  
_

* * *

"You should really stay here Sun, you are barely standing and your Aura has to be gone." Jaune looked at the Monkey Faunus and had to respect him, sure he tried to act like things didn't matter as much as they did but he never backed down, even before he really got to know anyone.

"I could say the same for you two, both of you look probably as bad as I do and your not willing to stay here why should I?" Sun looked at his fellow huntsmen and knew Jaune wouldn't be able to supply a satisfying argument, if they weren't going to stay at the shelter neither was he.

"Yeah didn't figure you for a quitter, say goodbye to your fan club then meet us outside." Jaune relented, adding Sun to their group wasn't really that big of a deal, he wasn't injured in any way that would slow them down. stepping outside he found Yang carefully inspecting Ember Celica, or her remaining good one that was.

"I think the housing of the firing mechanism in lefty was a little out of alignment, could explain why I didn't get the full effect, won't really know until I get the tools to take this plate off and have you inspect it." Yang lowered her arm finishing her inspection of her Right gauntlet. "Righty seem's fine and I was able to loot this while the two of you were inside." Yang motioned to a blade at her feet.

"A Parrying Dagger? That's not gonna do much to a Grimm. Where did you even find it?"

"Store, couple buildings that way," Yang jerked her thumb down the street "Saw it hanging through a window of a restaurant, some kind of decoration but its made of good strong steel and for some reason kept sharpened."

"Well good find in that case these Alpha's don't seem to phased by normal bullets."

"Does that mean I should be on the lookout for one as well?" Sun appeared from inside the building having said his goodbyes to the family he had risked his life to protect from the Beowulf.

"Do you even know know how to use a Blade?" Yang looked that the Faunus in concern, she clearly remembered an accident from her other life where Sun had almost severed several of his toes off while messing with Scarlet's sword.

"Lady I'm a trained Huntsman, of course, I know how to use a blade, heck I bet I could swing it around with my tail." Sun 's tail flitted forward and wrapped around the handle of Yang's newly appropriated Parrying Dagger, or he assumed it was the handle instead a thin trail of blood from his tail showed that he had just cut himself on the painfully sharp knife.

Both Vale Blonde's stared at their new companion with a mixture of disbelief that they had both just witnessed that and concern that he had tried again this time getting the handle right but now the blade was waving erratically behind the Monkey Faunus, getting close to cutting himself multiple times.

Jaune figured enough was enough and stepped in grabbing Sun's tail and removing the knife from the questionable limb. "Alright enough of this, we have to find and deal with the Grimm that have gotten past the Wall's."

"Shouldn't there be more Huntsmen on the streets though? If they are getting past the walls then there should be reinforcements coming right?

"We don't think so, these Grimm came in from the Sewers, we called for help before even meeting you and that was almost two hours ago at this point, Jaune and I are assuming we are on our own right now, everyone is too distracted with what's happening at the wall."

"Shouldn't we head to the wall then, between the three of us we could probably get some backup for the Grimm that came in through the sewers."

Yang looked at Jaune hoping he would have an answer for Sun's fairly reasonable question.

"Long story short, we are students at Beacon, the only people we would likely find on the wall are people who wouldn't recognize us being graduated Huntsman or other Students called to help, either way, we would get little traction and more than likely dragged into their larger fight."

Sun stood walked with the two in quiet contemplation considering Jaune's answer. "You make a good point I know if this was Mistral I would definitely not have a choice in the matter, teachers there are Strict and most Huntsmen there have a stick up their ass. But still this place is massive how are we going to find anymore Grimm or for that matter, you know that there are more?"

Jaune was rapidly getting frustrated with Sun's very simple questions and wished he had pushed harder for the Faunus to stay at the shelter, now they were stuck with him and his questions that realistically were simple to answer but would just lead to more and more questions until eventually, Sun would realize something was off about his answers.

He was saved from trying to answer that question as the universe sought to save him from Sun's questions as they heard not one or two mutually distinct roars but three.

The three Blonde Huntsmen raced to the source of the noise and rounded a corner to see a scene of absolute carnage, one of the Districts reinforced shelters had been breached, the area was littered with dismembered bodies, blood and gore filled the entryway to the building and inside the building showed the scene the Grimm were roaring about, the three Massive Alpha's were fighting each other over the last scraps of their meal.

Jaune bristled in fury over the scene, it was one he had seen many times but it never truly got better, the only saving grace in his mind was that everyone inside was already dead, it was truly a horrible thing to witness a live person be consumed whole, though he doubted by the sound of a sickening wretch of Sun regurgitating anything he had in his stomach that he felt lucky at this moment, Yang, on the other hand, watched with a fixed calm as she stared at the three Grimm.

Jaune only ever remembered Yang to radiate heat and right now she likely was as her eyes shifted color but Jaune didn't feel the heat instead a chill ran down his spine as Yang took a step toward the trio of Alphas.

* * *

Ozpin stood in his office watching the battle from a distance far to great for him to really interpret what way the battle might be taking, not that he needed to, Oobleck was forwarding him reports as they came to him as well as any other information he felt the headmaster needed to know, which was a staggering amount, more than Ozpin could realistically read at this moment.

It was a rare occasion for Ozpin to want to actually throw himself into a battle, many years have passed since he last killed a Grimm personally, many times more than that since he personally fought another Human aside from occasional training and sparring.

He showed an interest in Glynda's class from time to time and would observe through monitors and the Vytal Festival always briefly reintroduced a vigor to train more ambitiously for a short while himself, then distractions would take him away from it, paperwork to complete, meetings to attend, any number of things would push themselves in front of him and eventually he would be back to his normal routine.

Now though being present alongside Amber at the combat class's giving critique to students he had found himself more energized than ever before, he had visited the Gym more times these two weeks than he had in the previous two months, his old body would ache at the exertion but his Aura would make that a passing issue, somehow other things that normally took him away from more rigorous training never came up like they normally did.

His meeting with the Vale Council over with at least for the time being and the Battle on the wall in full swing, Ozpin struggled with the simple urge to go lend his support, from Oobleck's reports the battle was a Stalemate right now and that wasn't likely to change soon, as Huntsmen were becoming exhausted or injured they were being rotated out so that newer fresher fighters could join.

The longer the fight persisted the more fighters Vale would have available, they weren't infinite like the Grimm but in the villages and outposts surrounding Vale there were many dozens of Huntsmen that would respond to an emergency summons, those numbers were slightly reduced due to the force that was sent into Forever Fall earlier today and among those were many Huntsmen who had powerful Semblances that could deal with large packs of Grimm with ease. Those left are the more melee-oriented to call upon but the type of fighting along and on the wall would favor that type of combatant anyways so that call had been mad and every so often Ozpin would see a Bullhead returning in the distance and landing over by the wall.

Staring at a recently landed Bullhead Ozpin turned from his window view and towards his desk, abandoning his post not matter how much his Huntsmen instincts urged him to was not something he would or could do without grave reason, looking to his monitor he began to filter past the battle updates, he knew Oobleck would mark crucial information differently and all that were filling his inbox were things he could ignore.

Instead he began looking through the updates from the various shelters inside Vale starting with those closest to the fighting, the heavy concentration of fear would be like beacons to the Grimm horde and while the buildings are meant to withstand Grimm for a period of time they were not indestructible, so if anything had slipped past the walls these structures would know before anyone else so as the battle waged behind him Ozpin began to do Paperwork not expecting to find anything truly concerning.

* * *

She should have been looking for her missing teammates, that was her goal when Pyrrha made a chance for her to leave the battle on the Wall, find our teammates, in the vocal parts of her mind she was even telling herself that's what she was even doing.

Her body wasn't though, her legs carried her to where her subconscious mind wanted her to be, and that was a Hospital, one normally filled with retired Huntsmen.

Now though with the building in front of her, it was quiet, the retired Huntsmen and Huntress's had left en mass to assist in Vales Defense rising again when the occasion called upon them.

Blake walked into the building moving with the silent grace that came to her naturally. The building wasn't entirely empty, normal civilian caregivers still occupied the halls standing in groups likely discussing the mass exodus of the majority of their patients. Blake slipped past several of these groups moving deeper into the building to where she knew she would find Adam's room.

The pleasant memories of her time as Adam's partner had slowly been fading from her memories and they were instead being replaced by times when she felt something about the man had changed, she would look at those memories and she was certain that Adam had been lying to her for years before the incident on the Train that pushed her to leave, she was simply blind before then.

Blake's hand fidgeted with the grip of Gambol Shroud as she moved further into the building attempting to prepare herself mentally for what she had come here to do.

Rounding the final corner to her destination she stopped in her tracks, the door to Adam's room stood ajar and the two guard that were always present lay sprawled out on the floor, one with his head twisted at a frightening angle and the other in a pool of blood that had long since stopped growing.

With a burst of speed and throwing stealth away, she dashed to the entrance of the room hoping to find that the gruesome scene didn't mean that Adam was no longer inside.

Her hopes were ruined when she saw the room, immaculate and pristine but devoid of its lone occupant. Blake fled the building with haste and once outside and alone she shouted her frustration into the slowly transitioning sky as the sun was dipping past the horizon and the twilight hour was taking hold.

Nearby something clicked and her body was rocked by a small explosive. Aura shielded her from the worst of the blast but being caught entirely off guard her body was picked up and slammed into the wall of a building, as Blake's consciousness faded the world around her seemed to be filling with a Red haze.

* * *

 **A very short chapter for the time gap between updates but I have a couple actually good reasons behind that.**

 **The main reason is a pacing problem.**

 **This chapter was originally 4800 words but the last 2000 made no sense to have currently and have been added towards the next chapter which is actually close to finished as well might even be out this week as well.**

 **That being said the time frame has caught up to when Arthur Watt's sets off the explosives remotely and the Forest forces are on their way back to the city.**

 **A bunch of things going on in the chapter, sorry for making it seem like the mystery huntsmen Jaune and Yang helped was someone more important but nope just Sun.**

 **Aight well back to writing.**

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	31. Chapter 31

The defenders on the wall were exhausted, the battle had raged longer than anyone could have prepared for and the ending was still not in sight, the hundred meters between the wall and forest still stood filled with Grimm and more still emerged from the forest.

The wall still held but the fighting no longer consisted of Huntsmen throwing Grimm from the wall to be dealt with heavy gun fire, no now the walls held Grimm and furious melee's raged everywhere.

Pyrrha herself was engaged in on of these melee's, back to back with Professor Port of all people, she couldn't spare a moment to check on how he was handling his opponents as she was occupied with her own, hours of constant fighting had sapped her stamina and now her acrobatic fighting style had fallen to the wayside in favor of more grounded less intense moves, she was conserving what little strength she had left but every Grimm she dealt with slowly ate away at it.

"HA HA! I believe that makes an even fifty for myself, can't stop now though, maybe I can even beat my personal record!"

Pyrrha, her current opponent slowly dissolving into a black smear on the wall turned to admire Ports unflagging spirits, the Professor's attitude was infectious to those near him and morale along their portion of the wall seemed unreasonably high simply due ot his boastful attitude and presence. However that didn't stop him from not showing his concern, during lulls in combat he would check on other fighters, he apparently knew everyone by name, to make sure on their condition and he would send away those too injured or exhausted to continue fighting before the next wave crested the wall.

"Ms. Nikos, any word on any of your teammates?" Port approached her asking a question he had asked several times in the past hours he had become her unofficial partner.

"No, Yang and Jaune still haven't returned a single message I have sent them and Blake hasn't checked in with me either since shortly after leaving the wall." Concern and fear for her teammates was visible in her expression.

"Try not to worry lass, Yang and Jaune can take care of themselves better than most, Blake I might not know that well but she is more than capable of handling herself as well, if what you told me is true and I regret I can not spare anyone to check. The three of them should be more than enough to handle any loose Grimm inside the city. Now buck up I think I hear..." Ports words stopped in his throat as he looked over the city as it seemed to explode in a hundred different places, his trained eyes told him quickly that none of the explosives were all that powerful but he could already see fires beginning to spread and the city seemed to be shrouded in a red mist.

All along the Wall and into the Forest a great roar erupted from the Grimm as the scent of the Sap permeated the Air, the Grimm surged against the wall with a new energy, the horde was in a Frenzy as they sought harder than before to push past the wall and reach the source of the delicious smell.

Pyrrha watched as Port rushed to the edge of the wall with an energy that showed just how dangerous the man thought the situation had become, his bravado and cheer disappeared as he bellowed orders to those around him and those orders were followed without question.

Port turned to her and moved closer. "I think it's time you head into the city, find your team and see if they know anything about those explosions just now." Port turned and left taking his place on the wall just as a wave of Grimm larger and more ferocious than anything before crested the wall and washed over the defenders.

Pyrrha had her orders, she had no desire to follow them as she saw the wave crash over the wall it was only a final Bellow from her Professor as he cleaved through a Grimm pushed her to abandon the fight and head into the city to find her team.

Reaching the street was an easy thing, hop the wall and focus her Semblance into her shield on creating a slowing effect, she used the slow decent to quickly dial all three scrolls of her teammates, hoping something would change and one might answer. Reaching street level she was shocked when an exhausted sounding Jaune screamed through the device.

"Pyrrha! Where are you? We could really use some help right now!"

Pyrrha stared through the Scroll at her team leader who rarely accepted video messages, Jaune was a disaster to look at his armor was missing except for his arm guard and his was missing his shirt, his chest and arms bore multiple cuts and his face was no better, one eye was swollen shut and the other was blinking rapidly as a soaked through bandage that appeared to be made from the remains of his missing shirt had become soaked through as was slowly leaking blood into his one open eye.

"Where are you? What caused you to be so wounded?"

"Sorry don't know what street we are on anymore, we are near one of the Shelters to the North end of the Wall."

Pyrrha watched in concern as the Scroll slipped from Jaune's hand as he was about to say more. The device fell with the camera conveniently pointed at the action and she witnessed Jaune who was apparently carrying an unconscious Yang run off down the street as a Huntsman she didn't recognize screen them from what appeared to be flying chunks of pavement, one unfortunate piece was deflected right into Jaune's lost Scroll.

Pyrrha turned and began moving North but not before sending a quick message to their friends on Team WNRR.

* * *

Weiss closed her scroll after her short conversation with Pyrrha promising help, but she wasn't exactly sure how she was going to deliver on said promise.

Her team was tasked with several other teams to hold this portion of the wall, they hadn't been overly pressed until recently, those unknown explosions had thrown the Grimm into a Frenzy and what went from a stalemate now looked like a desperate struggle for the defenders.

Among her team, the wall couldn't spare Nora or Ren the two fought well side by side and the close quarters allowed the pair many advantages, she couldn't go either being that she was constantly being supplied dust to make the exterior of the wall thick with ice she was crucial to the defense.

The obvious choice was to send Ruby, her young partner was proving ineffectual in this type of combat and was simply trying to stay out of others way and little else, when the fight had been a long range encounter Ruby had been quite effective, in close quarters atop the narrow wall where she couldn't properly swing her massive weapon she could do nothing.

"Ruby." Weiss shouted over the din of battle and was glad to see her partner turn to the sound of her name and rapidly move towards her.

"What is it, Weiss? DO you need me to run and grab more Dust again?" Ruby looked pensive wanting to help but knowing there wasn't much she could do right now.

"No, I'm good for the time being. Pyrrha needs help down in the City, apparently, some Grimm have gotten past the wall somewhere else, you're not much use up on here but on the streets, you will all the room you need." Weiss pressed a button on her scroll and forwarded the address that Pyrrha had given her to Ruby's Scroll.

"But what about you guys?"

"Ruby let's be honest, your not any help up here your weapon is too big for this fight and you know it, go, find Pyrrha." Weiss could tell Ruby was torn but she understood readily enough and with a quick hug that caught Weiss off Guard Ruby was over the wall and into the city trailing behind her was a mass of rose petals.

* * *

Ozpin willed the elevator to go faster, the base of the tower never felt farther away than it was right now.

Just as he discovered a missing report among the shelters inside Vale had he heard muffled by the great distance a cacophony of explosions that forced him to look out the window once more as he watched in horror as a portion of his city was first obscured by a great many explosions and then the bright lights turned to an orange of flame but most concerning of all was the red miasma that now seemed to hang over the Upper-Class District.

With a curse he had crossed his office and stepped into the elevator, abandoning his Office and now stood riding the painfully slow elevator.

Reaching the base of the Tower he proceeded from the quiet interior of the building that changed to a mill of organized noise as he stepped outside the building proper, support staff and the occasional Huntsman were moving supplies through the courtyard, moving what appeared to be every weapon or spec of Dust the School had on hand towards the Bullhead docks, so that they would be ready for the next one to land.

No one present seemed aware about the explosions, they must have heard them but without the impressive view from his office, no one at ground level knew what had happened yet.

Oobleck did, Ozpin had sent him a message while he rode the elevator and no doubt the man was coordinating what remained of there resources to deal with this new issue, he had also informed the man that he was heading to the Bullhead docks to relieve him, that he wanted Oobleck to check in personally with a Shelter that had stopped sending reports.

Reaching the Docks the two men exchanged little more than a head nod as Oobleck handed over the tablet that had been receiving all incoming reports and then Oobleck was aboard the next Bullhead headed away into the now clearly burning city.

Ozpin looked down to see a new report added to the list, turning his attention to the tablet he began to issue instructions through it and to those around him.

* * *

Jaune stumbled, he was having trouble staying upright, loss of blood numerous injuries and that fact that he was carrying around Yangs unconscious form made it hard already, but what really made him have issues was the Beowulf Alpha that thought it was a Pitcher, the beast didn't seem inclined to approach leaving that to its partner the Ursa Alpha, who was slow and lumbering but made up for that in its durability.

Jaune shifted his weight looking ahead to try and find some way to escape their pursuers, but nothing ahead proved all that promising, there was their eventual goal of the Wall which was visible but what felt like to his tired body an unreasonable distance away but at the same time everything about the last few hours had been unreasonable.

Sun appeared beside him again his cheerful attitude missing as he landed hard from deflecting another too large projectile, turning Jaune saw the Beowulf two blocks back looking for something else to throw and the Ursa at less than a block, slowly walking towards them, it didn't seem inclined whatsoever to move with haste. Looking back to Sun, the Faunus had seen better days himself, Jaune and he could probably have a competition for the sorriest looking Huntsmen in Vale and in might have been a tie.

Sun's right arm hung limply at his side clearly broken from an extreme impact, it was amazing that he was even still conscious, the pain of the limb flopping about as he moved to intercept the rocks must have been excruciating, aside from the arm Sun was covered in innumerable cuts as he was slowly being cut to ribbons but the smaller rocks that came with the bigger ones he was deflecting.

"How are you holding up?" Jaune had to ask mostly because he wasn't sure Sun was totally aware of what was happening his expression beyond exhaustion was bordering on the blank look of someone on the verge of passing out.

"ME, I'm fine, could do this all day!" Sun's eyes focused again when he talked, his body tensed as well as it felt off for a moment. "What about you?"

"Same here, though not because I want to, just I don't think we have a choice." To accentuate his point a light pole beside them vanished as a person sized rock smashed through it showering them in a collection of broken glass and rock fragments. "Sounds like its time to move again." Jaune lifted Yang back onto his shoulder, she had been getting heavier every time he picked her up after resting and he knew that was a bad sign, his injuries were to the point where he doubted he made much left to go on.

He had been ecstatic when Pyrrha reached him on his Scroll and that he had managed to fish it out of his pocket somehow with his arms needed to keep Yangs unconscious body in place, his excitement was short lived as a volley of rocks had forced him to drop the Scroll and then they had to quickly leave the area, he wasn't sure how much she had heard but hoped that they might have reinforcements on the way.

Jaune broke from his cover and knew that Sun had managed to deflect another rock aimed his way by the loud grunt from behind himself, moving down the street his shoes pulling against his feet every time he took a step as everything was being slowly coated in a layer of Sap, idly he wondered as he moved how good or bad this Sap was for his open wounds, on one side enough had coated the makeshift bandage around his head that he was no longer fighting to keep blood out of his one working eye, the other side was the gash on his side seemed to be filled with the substance and it burned in a very unpleasant fashion.

Moving down the street was simply far too taxing for his exhausted body to endure any further as his body stumbled forward, twisting his body he managed to fall so that he and Yang ended up not in a pile.

With an effort that seemed beyond him he managed to get back to his feet though his body swayed wildly and his vision had trouble focusing he managed to remain standing and stared daggers at the approaching Ursa that didn't seem phased by the look at all since it wasn't even bothering to look at him, instead it had eyes only for the unconscious form beside him.

With unsteady legs, Jaune placed himself between Yang's unconscious form and the dauntingly large Ursa, which with its vision blocked regarded Jaune finally, if Jaune believed Grimm capable of actual thought he wouldn't have taken the loud snort just now as the Usra laughing at him as it lunged to attack.

Jaune couldn't dodge doing so was doom for Yang and he remembered clearly what blocking had earned him against the earlier Alpha he had fought with Yang in the Park when this all began.

With exhausted legs Jaune stepped into the Ursa's lunge, swinging his heavy arm guard forward and having it end up squarely inside the giant beast's mouth, the Grimm didn't seem phased by the intrusion of the limb and on reflex bit down hard, likely intending to sever the limb and swallow it in a single motion.

Grimm teeth met the plate of his Armguard and for a moment it seemed like the teeth were going to win until the Armguard changed shape as its sides folded outward cracking and shattering teeth as it unfolded, next came Jaunes sword, he stabbed hard upward into the Grimms open mouth, wedging the blade between the upper and lower jaws Jaune quickly snapped his hidden shield back into it hidden state inside his arm guard.

Finding the interfering object removed from its Jaw the Usra bit down as hard as it could, barely missing Jaunes retreating hand.

An earsplitting roar nearly deafened Jaune as the Ursa reared back in pain, the force of closing its Jaws had driven Jaunes blade deeper than his initial thrust did.

Blinded by pain the Ursa no long focused on Jaune or Yang instead it furiously attacked its own head in a blinding attempt to free the blade but serving only to drive the blade deeper.

Seizing the chance Jaune grabbed Yang under the arms and half dragged half carried his unconscious partner away from the Thrashing behemoth. Reaching the relative safety of an abandoned alleyway Jaune stashed Yang behind a dumpster, his legs as arms shook from the exertion but he couldn't remain idle for long, he could still hear Sun fighting in the street between the horrendous bellows of he slowly dying Ursa as it ever so slowly drove his sword deeper into its own skull.

Jaune pulled the Parrying Dagger from his belt where it had sat since Yang was knocked out so long ago.

 _Not really the best weapon for this but better than nothing._

Juane eyed the two remaining Grimm, the Ursa was blinded by pain and in its efforts to dislodge his blade had actually traveled further away from them in the time he had hidden Yang away, Jaune turned to the last remaining threat of the Beowulf Pitcher as it hurled a barrage of smaller stones at Sun who had just taken cover on the opposite side of a parked car, which was a good thing because the vehicle was riddled with bullet sized holes as the rocks tore through the body and frame.

Jaune could see Sun as the Faunus leapt from cover and tried to approach the Grimm only to be met with an entire car that he somehow managed to dodge but the action cause him to lose the ground he had made and then some ending up right beside Jaune.

"Is this usual for Vale Beowulf's? Throwing stuff instead of attacking with its claws?" Sun stood gasping for Breath and watching their opponent in frustration as it searched for more ammunition to throw.

Jaune concentrated trying to remember now that he wasn't running for his life if he had ever encountered a Grimm that fought in this particular manner and the only one that came to his mind was the Geist breed of Grimm and as far as he knew Geist were special to Mistral and beyond that he didn't think a Grimm could possess another Grimm but he couldn't rule that out, Geists were fearsome opponents, for now, though he chose to believe that this Grimm has just had a long existence and picked up a couple tricks.

"No, this is definitely not typical for a Beowulf, it doesn't want to fight us in melee and is actively trying to stop us from getting close enough to attack." Jaune watched as the Grimm hefted a handful of crushed pavement in preparation to throw, his tired legs barely allowing him to find cover as the area around him was pelted by another hail of rocks, Sun landed hard beside him, his teeth clenched against the pain in his arm.

Jaune and Sun rose unsteadily to their feet and watched as the Beowulf regarded them from a distance as it casually picked up a car, with a great heave the car flew out fo the Grimms arms and stopped motionless in the air right above the Grimm before crashing back towards the ground with the Grimm underneath.

The two Blonde huntsmen stood confused at the sight before them that seemingly made no sense to their tired minds and bodies, Jaune only clued in when Pyrrha appeared beside him.

"Great timing Pyrrha..."Jaune's limbs collapsed and with it his mind as well and his exhausted form hit the pavement, his body unable to do anymore.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha knelt beside her leader looking on in concern as his injuries seemed too numerous to count, her inspection was put on hold as a sound of wrenching metal reached her ears as the car she had used to crush the Beowulf was lifted from the ground and was discarded by its very angry victim who's eyes locked onto the her.

"Oh, come on how are you still standing!" Sun glared at the offending Grimm with exhaustion, he was no better off that Jaune the only thing he had going for him was he was still conscious.

"Thank you for helping my leader but I will take it from here." Pyrrha looked at the bloody and bruised Faunus with respect before turning to face the Grimm, she was tired from the fighting on the wall and the run to reach here but she was still the freshest fighter on the scene, well second.

A shot echoed from a great distance and the Offending Grimm staggered as the high-velocity round connected with its hide, the thick bone plates absorbed much of the damage from the initial shot but it had no time to recover as a second then third round connected with its hide the fourth shot finally hitting a part not protected by the Bone plating.

The Grimm unable to find the source of the newest attacker tried to flee but found its escape routes blocked by masses of metal as Pyrrha moved the metal debris of the battlefield to prevent the Beowulfs escape as well as remove any and all cover so that the Reaper could fire on the beast unhindered.

Pyrrha was exhausted as she moved the last piece, much like the two Blondes beside herself her Aura shimmered and faded away leaving her completed exposed to any attack, fortunately, the Grimm was being picked apart by their sniper and couldn't find a long enough moment to try anything itself.

With great expectation, Pyrrha watched and waited for the Grimm to take a fatal shot which would allow her to focus her full attention on her unconscious leader and discover the whereabouts of her partner as she hadn't seen Yang since she arrived.

The Grimm proved to be far more resilient than she expected, even as rounds connected with its skull they would not penetrate the plating, at least they stunned the beast but even that was beginning to lose its effectiveness as another round caught it square in the forehead, the Grimm staggered backwards for only a moment before righting itself and no longer concerning itself on trying to find the source of the ranged attack, instead it looked at the seemingly helpless targets much closer to itself.

"Really? That's barely even phasing it too," Sun looked at his new companion and the unconscious form between them. "Do you think you could carry him, I would but..."Sun motioned to his clearly broken arm and his general state.

Pyrrha looked at her unconscious leader in concern, the question of whether or not she could carry him was simple, yes, could she do it with any really speed that was likely a no, still she lifted one of his arms over her shoulder and proceeded to half carry half drag him away from the Grimm as Rifle fire rained down in a much faster rhythm as Ruby seemed to switch from precision fire to a rapid fire mode as the Grimm became less and less phased by the projectiles.

* * *

A dull aching pain coursed through Yang's form, she fought to ignore the pain and will herself to remain unconscious where the pain couldn't reach her.

As she fought for sleep to return to her images of a fight with three Grimm came to her, she tried to banish the images in her mind but that seemed to be impossible.

The vision before her in her memory showed the three Grimm fighting each other over the scraps of a human massacre, seeing the image again her blood ran cold.

The image faded away to be replaced by another, this one she seemed to be picking herself up off the ground, her other self-reached her feet and turned to the fight in time to see Sun hurled bodily into a wall, his arm making a sickening crunch but the Faunus was saved from another attack as Jaune appeared and pulled the clearly wounded Faunus away from the two approaching Grimm.

 _Wait, two, what happened to the third._

Yang tried to force the perspective to change to search for the third Grimm but she was not in control of these images.

Once more the image shifted, Yang stood facing the two Grimm as they closed in from either side, she knew that behind her was a badly injured Sun and Jaune, the latter was now sporting the remains of his shirt as a bandage that was trying to stop the flow of blood from his forehead.

Behind the two Grimm Yang spotted the third and understood clearly what had happened, Yang had fired her right gauntlets secondary fire option and this time it seemed to work properly, the Beowulf she had attacked was already gone, its form dissolved but the reason's for its death remained, over a dozen razor sharp and incredibly hard shards of Ice dust remained embedded deep into the floor of the room covered in the Blood and dissolved Essence of the Grimm they had defeated.

The image shifted again this time she stood in the street, she couldn't see the building that had been a shelter any longer, beside her stood the two other Blonde huntsmen, Jaune with a fierce look of determination and Sun who seemed more fit to fight than his body realistically should be, the image faded with a certainty that Yang knew there would not be another, she remembered the moment, she had lost consciousness as the last of her aura likely saved her life, cushioning the blow of the rock that hit her enough to prevent instant death but it had knocked her out.

The visions over and the pain abating somewhat Yang cracked her eyes open ever so slightly, glad to see her surrounding we dark she finished opening her eyes, she wasn't sure where she was but didn't feel safe, prone on the ground, gingerly she rose to her feet, no searing pain coursed through her body that would signal something was broken, though she felt uncomfortably sticky, she feared that sensation to be clotted blood but she also didn't feel light headed, well not the light headed one would associate with blood loss.

Yang ran her hands over her entire body trying to find the source of the sticky substance she was sure had to be coagulated blood but aside from a few minor cuts she couldn't find any way to explain the stickiness so she chose to ignore it, instead she focused on her surroundings, she was inside an alley the closer end seemed to be plugged with a couple cars as well as a collection of street lamps and garbage containers, the far end of the alley was open but stood dark, no street lights illuminating it, though now that she paid heed to it she could see an off color orange in the distance that faintly lit up her surroundings but on the same note she found the air tinged with smoke.

Moving to the end of the alley she was confronted by a scene that made little sense to her groggy mind, before her the street was filled with Huntsmen and Grimm locked in combat, the Huntsmen looked exhausted and were struggling to hold the Grimm in check.

Yang scanned the crowd looking for someone she recognized but the Huntsmen present were all adults and in some instances looked to be beyond the age of retirement as she watched an elderly woman sweep forward an arm shrouded in cloth as from the depths of the fabric a knife flew out and embedded itself into a Grimms skull, the Elder then struggled to stop the motion as her advanced age caused her to spin again this time uncontrolled and she ended up on her knees with her back exposed to another Grimm, Yang was certain the Elder female was done for, she was to far away to intervene but another Huntsman stepped in to protect the aged Woman, the man who came to her rescue appeared as old as the woman but managed to push the Grimm away and slit its throat with the same motion before turning and helping the woman to her feet, both shared a mutual look and resumed fighting.

The scene gave Yang energy and though she lacked knowledge of where her team was she had work to do, she waded into the combat intent on helping, it wasn't long before she discovered her first dead Huntsman a middle aged man who had been impaled and left to bleed out, Ember Celica was a useless mess at the moment, one-half entirely broken and the other empty of ammunition and she lacked any reloads.

Yang grabbed the deceased huntsmans weapon, a spear or glaive of some fashion she wasn't sure but all that mattered to her was she was armed again and while it wasn't a weapon she was familiar with she waded into the fight.

* * *

 **We are getting there!  
**

 **So Yang has been out for awhile long enough that the walls have fallen and the City is currently burning, she had no idea the whereabouts of her team or any of her friends.**

 **All the gears are finally rolling towards the conclusion of this event, still looking for a suitable name for this event, I've been drawing a blank as to how to refer to this event once it is over, like what the inhabitants of Vale would call it.**

 **Ah well if any of you think of something good pass it along as I'm drawing a blank on a good name.**

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	32. Chapter 32

A tail flickered through the air, leather creaked quietly the motions of the wearer had long since caused the stiffness in the joints of the clothing to disappear.

The figure moved with no concern as he hauled his prize through the streets of Vale, anyone who might have discovered his theft was embroiled in the war his ally had started.

Not that she knew he was present here, he was sent by his Mistress to collect a person who might prove valuable.

* * *

Blake jolted awake, the last thing she remembered was losing consciousness from an explosion, her Aura was full but the surprise and closeness to the blast had overwhelmed her sense's.

She scanned her surroundings, it was quickly apparent she was back inside the hospital that had previously housed the missing Adam Taurus.

None of the staff either noticed or couldn't spare the time to check on her as she rose from her bed, the place had devolved into chaos, wounded people, huntsmen and civilians alike seemed to occupy every inch of space.

While she was getting her bearings a female nurse appeared beside her and flashed a light in her eyes.

"Dilating correctly, no swelling either. Miss, do you know your name and where you are?"

Blake stared at the nurse for a moment. "Blake Belladonna, and I think I'm still in Vale." The answer seemed to satisfy the Nurse who nodded and pocketed her small flashlight.

"Yes, good, do you remember what happened to you?"

"An explosion, I was too close to it, I think, my Aura..." Blake felt a rush of blood and momentarily felt light headed but the sensation passed quickly.

"Ah, Aura, that explains it then, you were brought in with a group of other injured, said they found you unconscious in the street near what looked like a blast."

"Yes, I'm a Huntsman, or one in training... am I good to leave?" Blake felt fine but could also feel something wasn't exactly right either.

"I don't personally recommend leaving, but I also know that if you're anything like those that live here my opinion isn't going to stop you." The nurse smiled almost whimsically.

"Those who brought me in, did they bring my weapon?" As Blake asked the Nurse opened a drawer beside the bed, within didn't just hold Gambol Shroud but it also held her ribbon or more precisely what was left of it. Instantly Blakes hand shot up to her face and head and understood the reason something didn't feel exactly right, her bow was not the only thing missing from her head but the entire left side of her face and scalp was devoid of hair only the smallest of stubble remained.

"I'm sorry we had to cut off some of your hair, you're actually pretty lucky, your long hair and that Ribbon protected you from serious burns." The nurse having nothing left to say and other patients to check on gave her a sympathetic smile and moved on to her next patient.

Blake felt along her shaved head eventually reaching her Cat ear, she wasn't and had never been vain about her appearance but still, she felt slight misgivings about this major change even if it was done by doctors simply doing their jobs. She inspected the Ribbon and with a sigh let it fall back into the drawer, someone had tried to clean it while she was unconscious, while she appreciated the gesture the Ribbon was no longer serviceable, whatever the red substance that coated it was had hardened and turned the soft fabric hard and brittle.

Recovering Gambol Shroud she turned and headed towards the exit, through the multiple conversations she had overheard on her way through the building she had a solid grasp on the current situation in the city.

The wall had been breached, several portions of the wall had been overwhelmed and the fighting had been moved inside the city proper.

The fight so far was isolated to the Upper-class district but it was threatening to spill further south into the commercial area's as well.

There was also a slew of orders and messages she could hear being played over on repeat from the loudspeakers that no longer wailed incessantly, now it was a voice relaying emergency instructions on repeat, every five or so minutes Blake would here a delayed pause and the message would begin again.

She wasn't sure what she was doing, she knew she should join those fighting the Grimm and considering the direction she was travelling that was her intended destination, but she moved with no real haste, her scroll was missing so she was cut off from her teammates and friends, she was angry at the idea too, she had used the chance Pyrrha had given her to leave the wall not to find her their missing teammates but instead seek her own personal revenge.

Revenge wasn't the right word, what did she want revenge on Adam for, she couldn't honestly say she was blind to his actions, she had simply chosen to ignore the darker side, it had been almost laughably easy to do so in retrospect. She had been caught up in the fight for equality that she never stopped to look at the outcomes of their actions some times.

Even when she left she still somewhere in her mind believed in the organization, and maybe she still did as a whole, I could be that Adam and his group were the extremes of an otherwise much greater organization.

Redemption, as Blake walked and thought as the sounds of battle slowly grew. Redemption was what she had wanted tonight, she wanted to redeem the act's she had committed as Adam's willing accomplice for so many years, Adam's death at her hands wouldn't have been the end of it, she knew that now her step's seemed to increase in speed and energy, Adam was only the first step, she would have to work hard for real redemption for herself and more than that, the ideals her parents had for the organization as well.

Blake summoned an image in her mind one she had worked hard to repress as she felt she didn't deserve her parents, or that they might not forgive her for what she had done in the time she had left them, she almost feared she wouldn't be able to picture them clearly but her fear was needless, the image came to her pristine and clear, her mother and father smiling warmly.

* * *

Oobleck watched the conflict from the roof of a building not far from the front lines of combat, his coat showed sign's of recent battle but for the most part, he was unscathed and fresh compared to those who fought below him.

He had been trying to avoid fighting when he could, but he also wouldn't stand back and watch another die knowing he could help them so currently, his progress towards his goal had been painfully slow, he had arrived at the shelter Ozpin had sent him to investigate and as the Headmasters suspicions often were, he was correct once more.

The shelter was behind him now, but the image of it was still fresh in his mind, it was not one for the weak of heart. The interior had told two distinctly different stories, the first was of Grimm breaching into the interior and slaughtering those inside, it was a tale as old as Grimm themselves, the second story was more nuanced.

Huntsmen had appeared, too late to save those who sought the building for shelter but early enough to confront the beasts responsibly, and the Beasts had paid with one of their number.

He had been a Huntsman for long enough to recognize three distinctly different size of tracks had entered the building while only two left, one of the sets was on the receiving end of some powerful dust attack, the fact that the Crystals still held their shape and form after what he assumed had been several hours of time spoke volumes of the persons skill in Dust manipulation.

Following the sign's of battle as they spilled out into the streets he observed some unusual behavior, at first it wasn't obvious but the more instances he saw he became certain that one or both of the remaining Grimm were throwing projectiles, he wasn't sure what exactly to make of this behaviour so instead he tried to increase his pace and that's what had brought him to his current location.

Battle between Huntsmen and Grimm had spilled past the point he needed to travel to solve this mystery and he was currently stymied in his effort to move forward, so now he stood on a roof scanning the streets hoping to find some sign of the direction his quarry went, the thought crossing his mind with the mass of Huntsmen being pushed this direction from the wall it is possible that he was hunting an already dead Grimm.

He was about to abandon his hunt when many blocks away, a wall seemingly made of cars and twisted debris caught his eye, curiosity overtook him and in an instant, he was moving past the line of battle and further into what would be considered Grimm territory at this point.

Grimm territory hardly meant anything, the beasts didn't set up shop or anything of that nature, if you were past the fighting on either side you were safe, for the most part, there were always stragglers of those who got distracted by something that would be present and more than pleased to have a new target to focus their attentions towards.

Oobleck appeared to be lucky as he dropped down to street level and inspected the newly created wall with interest, the building in the surrounding area also told a story, the story of the Grimm that he was following, cars used to make the wall were riddled with holes and the surrounding area spoke of a prolonged fight one that he couldn't be certain of the outcome.

Taking time he wasn't certain he should, as the battle in the city raged and the huntsmen could use all the help in the world as injuries were slowly piling up, still Oobleck persisted in his investigation and he was rewarded, the site was a mess that told him nothing of value, not who the combatants were or whether they survived, the Wall spoke of one of his students, Magnetism while uncommon was not a unique Semblance still the odd's of it being Ms. Nikos was fairly strong.

The reward was a noise one of an exhausted beast, following the noise Oobleck discovered the source, an Ursa laid on it side its skull stripped of not only its Bone plates but most of its flesh in general as well as a portion of its lower jaw was missing, the curious thing to him was the wound's all looked self-inflicted, the Grimm had, in essence, killed itself, it was just a matter of time before the wounds would cause the beast to expire on its own.

However he didn't have time to wait for that, a clue was present and he desired an answer, while the beast panted helplessly on the ground through the missing jaw and flesh he had spotted a weapon embedded inside the creature's mouth, likely the source of the self-inflicted damage as well, bringing Thermos around and with a terribly powerful swing against the prone Ursa's skull, he heard the crunch and crack he desired and moments later the beast began to dissolve into nothingness.

Oobleck thanked whatever God's there were for the mercifully fast digestive system Grimm possessed, he had seen examples of Grimm killed before their stomach's had digested their meals and the sight was one that could make some of the toughest individuals he knew turn squeamish and he was no exception, the Beast gone Oobleck seized the blade that remained.

"Hmmm... Mr. Arc, I should return your blade, but I wonder where you are."

Oobleck's trail had gone cold, when he returned to the road there was nothing to be discovered without a more thorough investigation that he wasn't able to give, with a look of frustration at his surroundings he turned and returned to where the fighting was.

* * *

A flash of rose petals and a fierce cry of fury and Ruby was sent careening into a wall, her flagging Aura softening the blow enough to save her from being knocked out of badly injured but little more than that.

With a twist her small form pulled from the dent she had made in the wall and she landed softly as street level her eyes immediately returning to the fight.

The massive Beowulf Alpha was surrounded by over a dozen huntsmen and a small army of lesser Grimm, when the walls were overrun and those retreating form it ran into their fight confusion broke out for the longest time.

The confusion was settled and lines had been drawn, the Alpha had called the Lesser Grimm to itself using them as a shield of sorts as it went back to throwing anything it could reach, that being rocks, cars, parts of building and even a few unfortunate Beowulfs had been thrown by the much larger Alpha.

She had never encountered an Alpha before this and it's durability alone made it a formidable opponent, but it wasn't just durable it was smart and attacked in ways that caught even the veteran huntsmen who had joined the fight by surprise on a few occasions.

The smaller Grimm were packed together so tightly she couldn't dive into them like she would typically do, instead she was like every hunter forced to pick them off in ones or twos, everyone present was cursing the lack of dust as among them there were apparently several dust users that had long ago run out of the precious substance and have had to resort to more basic forms of combat, no one was louder than Weiss though.

When the Wall was overrun she had contacted Ruby and had brought the rest of Team WNRR to join her and Pyrrha, the reunion hadn't been as rewarding as Ruby hoped it would be, she had some idea that between her teammates and herself they would have easily dealt with the Alpha, for awhile they might have even, but then more huntsmen and more importantly the Wall of Grimm arrived and ruined the momentum team WNRR had made against the Alpha.

Ruby stepped back from the melee as Nora moved forward dealing more damage with her massive hammer in moments than Ruby had in the long minutes she had been fighting, Ruby loved Cresent Rose but today was showing it lacked a certain versatility that was needed when fighting in close proximity to other people she didn't want to inadvertently injure.

Ruby stepped back from the fight to where the injured or those too tired to fight were taking shelter inside a building.

"How are they?" Ruby looked in concern at the three prone figures on the ground, the two blonde males being unconscious while the red-haired Pyrrha remained conscious but was currently so drained of Aura her body had lost strength and she had temporarily lost consciousness, she had pushed her Semblance to far without any Aura to support it and the result had saved their lives it left her drastically weakened

"Oh, Ruby you have swapped out again?" Weiss looked up at her partner, not having noticed Nora's absence as she had spent her time taking care of those entering the relative shelter of the building, she wanted to join the fight outside, she wasn't entirely out of Dust but what little she had she was saving in case of a shift in the battle.

"Yeah, Cresent Rose isn't the best weapon for this type of fighting."

"Yes, I'm seeing 'certain' drawbacks to mine as well." Weiss glanced at Ruby's weapon and then her own. "Anyway's you asked how they are, Pyrrha is conscious again but as far as anyone here can tell she pushed her Semblance to far without any Aura to support it, she's apparently not going to be helping anyone for the next couple of days apparently."

Both girls looked to the prone Spartan who was looking around helplessly wanting to be doing anything useful but her body refused to move under its own power beyond simple feeble gestures.

"Sun, I think he said his name was before he passed out is in pretty bad shape, his arm is clearly broken but in how many places who knows, all I know is it's not made to bend both those directions and it's definitely not supposed to do both directions at the same time." Weiss shuddered simply thinking of the Faunus are caused her stomach to clench, the break was not pretty.

"As for Jaune no idea, he's unconscious but still breathing, they changed his head bandage and luckily whatever this red garbage in the air has actually helped to clot his cut because he didn't start bleeding again, otherwise he seems fine."

Both girls looked towards the entrance of the makeshift shelter as a cheer erupted from those outside, rushing to the doorway both were greeted by a sight of Huntsmen appearing from the direction of the wall's, the Huntsmen baring doing on the group even from the distance they were looked as exhausted as those they were coming to support but that did nothing to change the mood that had come across the defenders.

The new Huntsmen broke upon the back of the Grimm lines with such force most of the lesser Grimm were wiped out before they were able to turn to confront the new attack, the Alpha had only a moment before it was singled out by a powerful blast of wind, flinging the beast into an empty building and more importantly away from any huntsmen in the vicinity.

Ruby and Weiss watched in awe as the now singled out Alpha Grimm was bombarded by gusts of wind so sharp deep lacerations cut through the pavement, building and the Grimm inside, Next came something more substantial, finding the air knives not up to the task the next was a single massive shard of Ice, the still reeling Grimm didn't even see it before it collided with its chest ending it's life and causing the remaining normal Grimm to lose a fair deal of their coordination in an instant, the vague defensive wall they had adopted around the Alpha collapsed into an every Grimm for himself moment and the melee lasted barely another minute as with the confusion, and increased number of huntsmen they lost any chance they had.

* * *

Qrow crossed the wall and cursed as his much sharper avian eye's painted a clear picture of what had occurred in his absence, Everyone had been tricked, that much was obvious.

Ozpin, Ironwood, even himself, a great majority of Vale's best had been lured away from the real fight to that mockery that had taken place in the forest, Grimm didn't fight like that, every Huntsman present at the battle in the forest probably knew that, there were only a handful like himself that knew what was behind it though.

Salem, she had never staged an attack like this before but no one else had the ability beside her, or so Qrow hoped as he wheeled over the walls for another moment taking in the scene below him, the fighting aside from pockets of Grimm seemed to be nearly at an end, to seemingly accentuate this point Qrow could already see a group of Bullheads headed toward Beacon, the marking on the vehicles clearly painted them as either member's of the Vale Council or more likely their chosen representatives, the cowardly council members would likely remain hidden in their personal shelters until a real all clear is given and even then they would likely hide out longer.

Pushing his wings he knew he couldn't outpace the bullheads but he needed to reach Ozpin and tell him of the second wave that was coming, the near tireless Grimm were probably clearing the last few miles already and they needed to be ready for them.

Eye's picking apart the crowd and spotting Ozpin, swooping low behind a nearby building and changing forms he stepped out and strode forward purposefully, managing to beat the occupants of the Bullheads here as the crafts had to wait for clearance to land and were circling the area waiting for the ships carrying injured to land first.

"Oz, get people back to the Wall!"

"Qrow?" Ozpin was caught off guard by the sudden appearance of the man, he had been informed by both Taiyang and Winter he had been left behind in the forest, Ozpin didn't expect the man dead but was surprised at the speed the man must have travelled to reach here already, it was a long flight by Bullhead and Qrow had managed somehow to arrive less than an hour after them which spoke greatly of his endurance.

"We don't have much time, Council members or their lackey's will be here soon, get as many people to the walls again as you can, I lost sight of them a bit ago but another Wave of Grimm the ones I was fighting in the forest they were headed this way." Qrow stressed his point as much as he could, people were beginning to turn and look at the quiet conversation the two men were having.

Ozpin, trusting his opinion and knowledge immediately began issuing new orders from his tablet, in short order just in time for four far too elegantly dressed individuals, the actual Councilmen not subordinates appeared.

Down in Vale, hundred's of Scrolls, from professional huntsmen to the most Novice of fight years received instructions that if they were able and not assigned to any other life-saving task to make for the wall and prepare for another fight.

* * *

Returning to the Wall had proven pointless in the end, the Grimm Qrow had watched head towards the City had vanished into the forest never nearing the wall's or it's tense defenders.

The last pockets of Grimm inside the city were dealt with and the battle seemingly drew to a quiet close, no heroic champion spearheading a fight against the Grimm invaders, nor some defiant last stand from the Grimm that claimed the life of a tragic hero.

The Battle ended but the District still burned from now raging fires and the Districts was shrouded in a Red Aura that would persist for weeks to come.

One person stood at the edge of the city, a tail flicking behind him as a Bullhead touched down beside him, his tail flicking excitedly at the idea of returning to his Mistress, with his task completed he threw aboard his unconscious companion, sliding the Door shut behind him as he stepped inside.

As the City behind them Burned no one noticed A single Bullhead flying away from the turmoil of the City, some would notice the absence of Adam Taurus but by then they would be too far away for anything to be done about it.

* * *

 **So ends the Battle.  
**

 **I had always intended for the Battle to end with an unsatisfied feeling, which was hard to write, but I feel I succeeded.**

 **I finished the Chapter and handed it off to my Beta and I feel if she could have reached through my monitor and slapped me she would have but she understands my reasons, even if I had to spoil some things for her down the line.**

 **Not much else to say here, aside from the fact that now that this chapter is done I'm going back and with the help of my Beta we are fixing the original chapters to be more readable for new people so probably don't expect an update for this in the coming week unless I'm feeling ambitious.**

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	33. Chapter 33

Ozpin had been dismissed, the council members having had there fill with berating him for his failures at managing the security of their city had sent him away when they grew tired of his talk about passing the Vytal festival to the next kingdom down the line, even with the assurances that he had from Ironwood whom he called during the meeting when he broached the subject that they would be able to host the festival the following year instead meant nothing to the council.

He understood, of course, the Festival would bring revenue to the City which wouldn't only line their pockets now. No, now the money from the Festival would go to repairing Vale's damaged infrastructure instead of coming directly from the pockets of the council members.

Hosting the Festival so shortly after such an event would have other perks as well, Grimm are attracted to negativity, the Festival would go a long ways to reversing the Negative emotions that were no doubt already spreading out from Vale.

The Festival would also bring much-needed Security to the Kingdom as well, some of the best and brightest from the other three Kingdoms would be attending, as well as their teachers and even among the spectators, there will be Huntsmen as well.

Ozpin could tell before he had been dismissed that the Council would not be dissuaded and instead played a gambit, while Ironwood was still on the line he had formally requested Atlas aid in security preparations for the Festival. The Council had been ecstatic with the idea, likely they had been wanting to broach the subject themselves and likely they would have if he hadn't been present.

Around the time of his dismissal from the meeting, he had subtilty ended the call sensing that if the line was left active things might have progressed in a manner that he wasn't sure he would have been happy with.

Ozpin stepped into his office and sat at his desk and immediately called James again.

"Hello James, so sorry to call on you again this evening but we have one more issue to deal with." Ozpin stared into the monitor glad to see that as exhausted as he was James appeared to be in a matching state. He had passed the news along at the outset of the fighting on the walls and no doubt his friend had worried none stop until he called him during the meeting with the Vale council.

"Indeed, but I must ask before you get started, why were you the one to ask for Atlas's assistance for Security during the festival, you aren't the one to normally ask for help."

"That simply was just to beat the Council to the punch, unlike you I have no real power over the decisions made here in Vale so I must be more subtle on how I deal with them. They were going to ask you for assistance regardless, likely if it wasn't done during that meeting it would have been in a few days time, I merely beat them to the punch and also insured that someone I trust, who also knows the real threat behind this attack will be helping with security." Ozpin opened a drawer in his desk and pulled forth a flask of alcohol, deciding he needed something stronger than his coffee at the moment, he splashed a portion into his cup before secretting away the flask.

"..."

"I'm sorry James, I'm just collecting my thoughts, a fair amount has happened today and you only received the bullet points while listening in on the meeting."

"Then please, fill me in as well as you can."

"I will, later, with a more concise report when I have all the details, but we are waiting for two others." As Ozpin spoke the elevator to his office opened an in stepped Qrow Branwen and Winter Schnee.

"General," Winter snapped to attention "I am sorry to have not contacted you personally yet, things in Vale have not gone according to plan."

Through the monitor James simply nodded to his subordinate, the gesture being the signal for her to relax. "Yes, Ozpin filled me in on most of the details already but I look forward to your own personal report as well. Now you are here for another reason."

"Indeed, James has made a vocal point of including you in... other matters for some time now and after recent events, I feel an addition is warranted." Ozpin looked at James through the much larger monitor he had shifted the call to.

The first to speak was Qrow before anyone else. "Are you sure about this Oz?"

"None of us would be here if I wasn't certain Qrow."

Winter stood in the room a look of confusion on her face but her strict discipline prevented it from being anything more than that. "Thank you for your belief me and my abilities, I will not let any of you down."

"Great, it's bad enough that Atlas knows but now a Schnee." Qrow didn't say with any mocking or scorn, more of a simple wry smile to show that he wasn't really serious, he trusted Ozpin with these decisions but that didn't stop him from having his opinions of the Atlas kingdom or the Company that exists within it.

A single scowl was all Qrow received from Winter who stood waiting for the conversation to begin.

"I will leave most the details to be explained later as the evening is running quite long and there are a great many things to be done by all of us, but for now Winter, you need to know that the three of us as well as a few select others from around Remnant are fighting a conflict with an individual whose final goal is unknown, but has clearly shown disregard for the well-being of those of us who inhabit the world."

Winter looked at Ozpin, her eye's flashed to James on the monitor for a moment and she saw him nodding in agreement to what Ozpin had just said. "Wouldn't it be in your benefit to expose such an opponent on a global scale, taking away their secrecy... unless you have secrets of your own that your opponent knows are as damaging to you as yours are." Winter couldn't read any of the men present they all had exceptional poker faces but the lack of a change basically told her the truth.

"You are correct. As much as we could do to her she could do to us. Salem, our opponent, has been at this longer than any of us could probably imagine, she is patient and meticulous, which brings us to not only today's conflict but also to one that happened shortly before Beacons newest Year had started. "Ozpin settled behind his desk motioning for the two here in person to take seats as well. "One of our Secrets had been identified and targeted by Salem. Amber, is one of our Secrets, she houses a power than unfortunately transfers upon a hosts death. Amber was attacked and the Power was almost taken from her during that encounter, only thanks to so as of still unidentified help and the arrival of Mr. Branwen was she saved from her fate."

"Unidentified help? Is there a third party that know's about these secrets as well?"

"As a whole we are unsure, I personally am of the belief that those who helped Amber did not do so much for her benefit but more for their own, though that is entirely based on the story of the fight that Amber has told me." Ozpin's gaze shifted to the monitor that had James face, this was a subject neither men wholely agreed upon but James had let drop due to not having any leads about the identities of Ambers mystery defenders, instead he had focused his efforts on the discovery of the three who had attacked her, to begin with. "That attack was likely meant to rob us of a powerful ally for the attack that happened today."

Winter nodded, she had seen what Amber was capable of during the course of the day and knew that the force in the forest would have been in much worse state than what they were when the eventual retreat was called for, as it was the forces in forest suffered no deaths and very few injuries, though there were many who would be needing several days if not an entire week to recover from Aura expenditure. She was going to need a day or two herself of minimal activity before she felt right again herself.

"The attack on Vale was something Salem has never done before, she isn't direct like this but she is also the only one we know of who has the ability to do something like this."

"Salem was responsible for this? Can she control Grimm to this extent?" Winter asked aloud, her mind reeling at the prospect of a foe with the power to control not only Grimm but several thousand.

"Yes." Ozpin's answer left no question that he knew she was capable of such a feat. "There are multiple things inside Vale that Salem has been trying to acquire or remove for as long as we have been aware of her, she made no effort to attack the CCT or to kill Amber. The only goal of this attack seems to have been to spread negativity and if that was her goal she has succeeded, which also means something worse than this is on the horizon."

Winter was shocked by the final words of Ozpin. _Something worse._ From what she had seen she found it had to picture something worse than what had already transpired, or at least in the sense of the way Ozpin spoke, he seemed to view what had happened in the city as a tragedy, his voice though made it apparent enough that something worse wasn't just the same event on a much larger scale but something entirely different.

"Winter," James spoke for the first time this meeting. "I know this is a great deal to take in and it will only get worse when we have more time to explain some things in detail, that being said we need to tell you something about Amber and how her power works, as you will be replacing Qrow as her personal Bodyguard for the foreseeable future." Ironwood continued speaking even though Winter sought to ask a question. "Before you ask, no you will not be bringer her to Atlas, she has made it clear on multiple occasions how little she thinks of our Kingdom. No, you will be remaining In Vale. I regret to inform you, your decision to not become a temporary teacher at Beacon has changed from an offer to an Order, official orders as being prepared so that you will not be there as a representative of the Atlas military but instead as a member of the Atlas Academy, you will be liaison for the Student's we will be sending to attend the Vytal Festival, also you will be placed on a joint committee to oversee the security of the Festival as well. I will expect weekly reports on your activities." James finished and waited for a moment to see if Winter had any objections, he knew she wouldn't not when he had made her remaining an order rather than an offer, his part of the meeting now complete James said his farewells and terminated the line.

"Ms. Schnee, I will have Professor Oobleck show you around when time permits, and we will find you more suitable arrangements for you going forward," Shifting his gaze to the other man in the room, "Qrow can I trust you to fill her in on the details of what we have just included her in?"

"Sure thing Oz, come on Ice Queen you are about to learn one of the reasons I drink so much." Qrow turned and stepped in the elevator he had already been leaning beside realizing early on he wouldn't have much to say during this meeting.

"Headmaster, could I please have someone else explain to me the 'details' to me." Winter's eyes pleaded silently with the Headmaster for anyone else.

"I know you and Qrow do not have the most... pleasant of interactions but I think you will find him to be a more focused individual, particularly concerning this topic." Ozpin watched as Winter's head lowered in defeat as she joined Qrow inside the elevator, once the doors closed Ozpin looked at his glass for the first time since pouring it, with a grimace he tilted the glass back and poured the liquid down his throat.

* * *

Team ABYN had been reunited, not that anyone aside from Blake and Yang knew that currently, each member of the team was occupying a bed inside Beacons of personal infirmity.

The entire room was filled with people, the overstressed on staff physicians on Beacon did their best to accommodate everyone but the School was simply not made to handle this many injured students at one time.

Blake had already abandoned her bed to someone else more in need, the Doctor that had inspected her hadn't found anything overly concerning, he had handed her a jar of Cream to help with the effects of the Burns she had received from the Sap and been told to take it easy for a few days, nothing stressful to her Aura.

Currently she stood at the foot on the bed holding Yang, her Blonde teammate was conscious and looked upset about that fact but bad been told to stay awake, the doctor was concerned as she clearly had a concussion and she had told him herself that she didn't know exactly what was the cause behind that, the only thing she was able to tell anyone was that Jaune and another was with her in her last memory before she woke up in the street of Vale before returning to the fight. Yang fidgeted in her bed thankful when the Doctor finished his inspection and she was set to vacate the bed and move closer to Jaune, just as she was about to do so her vision swam and she thought better of leaving the bed at least until the world decided to stop heaving violently.

Next in the line was Pyrrha, the red haired Spartan was sleeping peacefully, all told she was the least wounded of the team, Pyrrha had escaped the fighting relatively unscathed at least physically, her issue was not simple Aura loss but Aura fatigue, the Doctor, once he had diagnosed it had simply told her to rest, she was going to feel weak for a good long while maybe a week or more before her Aura really came back to her until then she had simply been prescribed rest and three square meals a day.

Lastly was Jaune, her partner and team leader was a mess. Head wrapped in a bandage covering a line of stitches across his forehead, his entire body was actually riddled with lacerations caused by rocks and stones, the Doctor had to physically remove some that were still imbedded in his skin or underneath, the cuts were painful to look at and would likely leave ample scars but they would heal, her entire team would be fine and for that she was grateful, though she couldn't shake the idea that their wounds would have been less severe if she had actually done what she had said and looked for her team instead of going to deal with Adam, the fact that she didn't even manage that since he was missing adding to her guilt.

* * *

Sun should be asleep his mind screamed at him to return to the state but he couldn't, the pain from his recently set and casted bones prevented him from from even imagining sleep as a potential thing until the painkillers kicked in and even then he didn't really want to right now, beside him stood the most beautiful Faunus he had ever seen, she hadn't noticed him yet, to concerned with staring at the occupant of the bed beside him.

Jaune, he knew this Faunus and they seemed to be on the same team, Sun knew the answer was simple, he knew Jaune so he would just ask Jaune to introduce them, the downside to that plan was Jaune was currently unconscious and not likely to wake up for him to put his plan into action.

With an inward sigh and tightly gritted teeth Sun swung one then both of his legs over the side of his bed, next he let his feet touch the floor and support his weight, using his remaining good arm he pushed off from the bed and with a little effort, his shaky legs, still exhausted from the days events managed to hold him.

Taking the single step needed he now stood beside the Black-haired beauty looking down at his companion form the day.

"So how is he?" Sun asked trying not to stare at the girl, instead, keeping his gaze focused on the man in the bed.

Blake looked at the person standing beside her, she didn't recognize him aside from the fact he arrived with the both Jaune and Pyrrha. "The Doctor said he will be fine but nothing else beyond that really." Should you really be standing, Blake's gaze finally took in the whole form of the figure beside her and he looked to be in as bad as shape Jaune, maybe worse, Jaune at least didn't have a full arm sleeve cast that was propped up at a ninety degree angle by a stiff Iron rod.

"Oh sure, this, this is nothing, hardly anything to worry about, names Sun by the way whats yours?" Sun turned his grimace lined face cheerful as he introduced himself, the smile vanished immediately as a wave of light headedness swept over him and his casted arm connected with something hard, it was barely a glancing tap but the pain sent through his body that was no longer being fueled by adrenaline caused his legs to buckle, the ground rushed to meet him at a frightening pace but the imminent impact never happened. Strong arms supported him and with a bit of effort even got him back on his own bed.

"Thanks for... OW" Suns head snapped back as he was flicked in the forehead hard by the Black haired Faunus who had just helped him back to his bed. "What was that for?"

"That was for trying to be tough and almost getting hurt cause you wanted to flirt."

"Hey I am tough and maybe I was trying to flirt but I'm injured here cut me a little slack."

Blake rolled her eye's. "Flirting in a hospital with someone you don't even know, I said you deserved that flick maybe another too just to keep you in line. For all you know he," Blake referenced the prone Jaune. "Might be my very jealous boyfriend." Blake was tired and just wanted be with her teammates but she had the distinct feeling Sun wasn't going to leave her alone unless she made it clear he had no chance.

"Well if you are dating Jaune, then you might want to watch out for Blondy down there, he went through a lot today to make sure she ended up alright." Sun watched with a smile as the Cat earned Faunus looked at him in confusion, likely wondering how he knew any of them.

"How do you know Jaune and Yang?" Blake glared at the fierce expression caused the bright Faunus a moment of hesitation.

"They saved me and a family I was protecting from being Grimm food, after that I spent the rest of the battle today at their sides, it was all quite heroic, even watched as Yang shot this cool Ice sword thing out of her Gauntlet, never seen anything like it, strangest looking Dust discharge I have ever seen." Sun smiled up at his companion.

Blake reached forward and flicked the Monkey Faunus between the eye's "Blake."

* * *

Qrow sat on the hard chair looking at his companion for the evening and watched as some of the illusions she held about the world of Remnant began to crumble away, now that the truth had been exposed to her.

 _She's stronger than most, probably that Atlas Training actually being good for something, she's handling this far better than Amber did when I brought her to meet with Oz so long ago._

Qrow looked at his flask, Winter currently held it, half way through his story of Maiden's and Relics, the real importance behind the CCT towers she had appropriated it for a long hard pull from the substance inside, to her credit she handled the rough alcohol well, most people would have sputtered and coughed half of it right back up, Qrow didn't pull punches with what he kept in his personal Flask, Winter aside from a severe grimace swallowed and had actually taken a few more drinks from it as he progressed with his information.

The long process of catching Winter up to speed on things she needed to know over Qrow reached across the table and gently slipped his flask from he weak grip. Frowning when he lifted the container realizing that his companion had emptied the near full flask all on her own, a fact that actually impressed him even just slightly that she could handle his flask's contents that well and still be upright.

With a motion, Qrow stood from his chair and pocket his Flask before turning to leave and let the newest addition to Ozpin's secret conflict sort out the details on her own.

"One question before you go." Winter looked at him her gaze seeing him about to leave.

"Here I was hoping you were either too confused by the story or the alcohol or both maybe to have any, but sure ask away."

"Am I to be the next Maiden if Amber was to die? Is that why I'm replacing you as her bodyguard?"

Qrow turned and regarded Winter with an earnest expression before looking toward the ceiling trying to think of the answer he wanted to give, finally, he settled on a simple word. "No."

"No?"

"You heard me I said no."

"How can you say no though? I'm being placed next to her for the foreseeable future what other motives could there be behind the choice to have me be ready to take the power's in the case of her death?"

"To be honest I'm not sure why you were the the desired choice for this job, but I also know you will not be able to inherit Amber's powers on the off chance she was to die."

"How do you know for sure though? Your no, was rather definitive."

With a sigh, Qrow sat back down in his seat really wishing he had anything left in his flask. "You are ineligible to be an inheritor to the power much the same way Glynda is. You heard me earlier when I explained exactly how the power might transfer right? Dieing thoughts, things like that?" Qrow made sure to recieve a nod of confirmation before continuing. "There is a list, a short one, but a list nonetheless about certain criteria a person must meet to be eligible to receive the power, being Female is one of the criteria, another major issue with the power is it will be drawn to a free spirit. I don't mean free spirit in some hippy peace loving fashion either. No, free spirit, in this case, is someone who won't take an order, someone who is their own person, not a puppet for another to use."

"I hardly see myself as a puppet?" Winter argued back not liking the explanation or the way it was being delivered.

"Fine, puppet was probably the wrong word but it's an apt descriptor, Glynda is ineligible to receive the power because she touts the line for Ozpin, there is a power above her that she would follow even if she had the power, you are the same, if you had the power you would follow Woody's orders still wouldn't you?"

A single nod was all the answer he needed. "So then why did both of them offer me the position at Beacon, if I was ineligible to become a candidate for the Maiden's power why choose me at all?"

"How should I know. I'm usually not around enough to know whats going on during any given day and to understand some of Ozpin's decisions get real, he has my trust something that is mutual but this, who knows, for all I know maybe Glynda asked for you personally during one of her moments awake or maybe you just like selling yourself short, hell it could even be the Schnee family Semblance, bringing Grimm into a classroom no matter what Port says is not a realistic thing, having a Semblance like yours that could train students in new ways might have just been the ideal thing." Qrow finished he was actually pleased that his response seemed to have struck a cord within her. "Now if you don't have anything else I need to find somewhere to refill this." Qrow patted his pocket concealing his flask as he stood once more ready to leave. As he stepped away his companion stepped in line beside him.

"I emptied that, I will refill it for you, ideally with something better tasting."

"A Schnee buying me a drink, what is the world coming too."

* * *

 **Another one done, and the good guys have had enough time for now.**

 **Which means Villians! Which normally means I complain about being forced to write Cinder but you know what, half losing it, mentally unstable, maybe a horrible Grimm/Spider/Bug/ Monster thing is actually growing on me as a fun thing to write.**

 **Also, means I get to have some fun with Roman again, he makes the villain chapters for me, he's fun to write when I just let him be a wise ass.**

 **But for what went on in this chapter... WOW not much really after I reread the entire thing, though this kinda goes hand in hand with wanting the last chapter to be an unsatisfying conclusion to the battle the follow-up chapter is really here to hammer the point forward.**

 **Anyways not much to say, Sun and Blake have met and I gave you guys my headcanon on why I think Glynda wasn't an option to become the Maiden in Volume 3.**

 **Follow/ Favorite / Review**


	34. Chapter 34

Adam didn't remember much, he had been bested quite humiliatingly by some human, not even some well known powerful Huntsman either, Merely some nobody that was for to skilled for his apparent age. Next thing Adam remembered was waking up in a hospital, his wound's had been treated and he was recovering, he hadn't managed to glean much from his guards or the sole nurse that was allowed to enter his room, the nurse was a Huntsman of some sort, Adam knew that after his only attempt at escape, he had impulsively tried to take her hostage to use as a bargaining chip only to learn she was more than capable on her own.

The one and only attempt he had made was thwarted by a middle aged, pudgy, retired huntress who now worked as a Nurse in a facility that housed numerous retired Huntsmen.

Then came the other Faunus, Adam woke up at the memory of the man. With a groan of pain his body protesting against the sudden action but ultimately the pain faded.

He had no idea where he was or how much time had passed, the last thing he clearly remembered was a sound of clear fighting outside his room, the fight hadn't lasted long and he assumed now his guards were dead, not that he truly cared about the fates of a few Humans. Next, the figure behind the fight had entered the room and he had felt relief at the sight, he didn't recognize the Faunus but the fact that he was a Faunus meant something to him.

The Skorpion Tailed Faunus didn't seem to agree with him though, a powerful blow rendered him unconscious and that was the last thing he remembered before waking up here.

Adam had no idea where here was, his bed was placed in what he assumed was the middle of a room, he wasn't sure because he couldn't see any walls, the only light came from a dull shaft from the ceiling.

"Are you finally awake? Of course you are, silly question really." A voice from the shadows spoke. "I shall inform my goddess immediately, she seems quite keen on meeting you, you should be honored very few have that privilege."

Adam could not identify the direction of the voice nor what direction the door was either when he heard the familiar sound of a door open and close.

At a loss for how to deal with his current situation Adam rose from the bed, placing the majority of his weight on his left leg not trusting his right to hold his weight, the flesh had closed and his Aura, when it returned had gone a long way towards repairing the damage he had taken but some things took time regardless of Aura.

Adam moved past the ring of light into the shadows, immediately he collided with something which he knocked over barely managing to stay upright himself, reaching low he grabbed for what he had knocked over and discovered it to be nothing more than a simple chair, well far from simple upon inspection, it had been masterfully carved and its seat and back had comfortable velvet padded cushions.

Adam righted the chair and moved further into the shadow's only now realizing his low light vision, inherent to all Faunus, was not working as he collided with another hard wooden object that after examination appeared to be a rather large dresser. Feeling oddly vulnerable in the simple pair of shorts he had been wearing he slid open the dresser hoping to find something more substantial to wear. Unable to discern the contents of the drawer he simply grabbed an armful of its contents and returned to the only source of light.

Once returned to the middle of the room Adam knew everything inside the chamber would likely be of no use to him, in his arms he held multiple red dresses similar in style and design to the ones he knew Cinder to wear during their few interactions. In disgust he dropped the many dresses on the floor and turned to return of his slow inspection of the room, the progress was slow as he had to resort to slowly feeling his way along the walls of the room when he eventually reached one and following it hoping to reach the door or at least possibly a light switch.

His search eventually turned out to be a success when his hand met a change in the wall that once inspected was obviously a door, with a twist of the handle he pushed the door open and stepped into a relatively well-lit corridor, his timing was unfortunate though as he stepped into the hall the Faunus he remembered striking him back in his Hospital room appeared from around a corner.

"Ah, I see you are anxious to meet the Goddess, that is perfect but first we must simply make you presentable, That is why I retrieved these for you, hurry now put them on." The Skorpion Faunus tossed Adam a satchel that when Adam inspected carried a set of clothing that appeared like it would fit him.

Adam dressed in silence as the other Faunus looked on with a far too eager expression as far as he was concerned but he simply tried his level best to ignore the gaze.

The outfit did not look like much but was well made and would likely survive a great deal of punishment, strong stitches held the leather and cloth outfit together, Adam stood in the hall and inspected himself in one of the several full-length mirrors that littered the walls, the Dark brown pants provided ample space for various ranges of movement and the boots were sturdy and he was sure were steel toed, his shirt was simple white cloth with no emblem of any sort present, lastly was a heavy tan trench coat identical to the one worn by the other man in the Hall, Adam was certain all the cloth's he wore likely belonged to the other.

"There. Is this acceptable?" Adam's throat felt raw from disuse.

"Hmm, it is passable I suppose, here one more thing."

Adam had only a moment to react as the other Faunus used his tail to fling a Sheathed Wilt and Blush at him which he had concealed behind his back the entire time.

Catching the weapon Adam drew Wilt and leveled the blade between himself and the other man, Blush was also brought around and held at the ready. "That was a stupid decision to return me my weapon before explaining anything."

"Hardly, but do you know what really was a stupid decision?" The Faunus crouched low ready to react any movement Adam made.

Adam scowled at the other Faunus, he desired to attack simply on the fact he appeared to be aligned in some way with Cinder.

"Your stupid decision was to draw your Blade her in my Goddess's home without her permission..." The Faunus's eye's bulged and his tail flicked up ready and prepared for a fight.

"Tyrian..."

Tyrian stood upright his tail lowered and his eyes seemed to settle down but behind them was still a hint of madness. "Right follow me, my Goddess has waited long enough." Tyrian turned his back to Adam and hastily made his way down the hall not even turning to see if the other Faunus was bothering to follow.

 _That was definitely not Cinder's voice..._

Cautiously Adam sheathed his weapon and followed after the Faunus who he now knew was called Tyrian.

The hallways bled together to form a tangled mess that he wasn't sure he would have been able to navigate on his own, as it was he struggled with his wounded leg to just follow Tyrian who was wholly unconcerned about letting him keep up. Adam pushed himself to keep pace though as several times he passed hallways that housed Monstrous looking Grimm he couldn't identify moving with some form of order. Eventually Tyrian reached his destination and pulled open a massive door that swung open easily on well oiled and maintained hinges.

Tyrian said nothing he simply stood back and allowed Adam to enter once he was inside Adam felt the door close behind him Tyrian had remained on the other side.

"Hello Adam, I am Salem, welcome to my Home." Salem stood across the room her back to him as she gazed through a window that looked out over the landscape.

Adam's mind was split, he was unsure of what exact kind of situation he was in but every fiber of his being told him it was a dangerous one, he felt his very life threatened as soon as Salem spoke. "Should your name illicit some reaction from me?" Adam decided to employ a lesson he had learned from watching Blake in the past, tact she called it, she also accused him of having none, he personally hoped for his sake that he had some now as his host turned from the window and he was allowed to view her visage for himself.

He wasn't sure what to make of her appearance, the majority of her skin was entirely white and the few instances that he could see that wasn't white was covered in red or black lines, the majority of them appeared on her exposed arms but a few appeared toward the sides of her face.

"No, it shouldn't, I have worked quite hard to make it so very few know of me." Salem moved towards Adam.

His mind screamed at him to flee, his every instinct pushed for flight with every step closer the figure took, it was a sensation he struggled to ignore, the only reason he didn't act on it was he knew he had no chance, even if his body was whole he would not be allowed to escape this place. "I am honored that would find me acceptable to know of you then."

Salem paused for a moment before continuing her slow walk forward a faint smile gracing her lips. "I do believe my information about you was incomplete." Salem reached the point of the room she desired and sat herself down in a chair at the head of a table. "Please have a seat."

Adam looked around the table at the other unoccupied chairs and settled on the one to Salem's right, his weight finally off his leg a small sigh of relief escaped his lips.

"Interesting choice, but I suppose it make's sense."

Adam tensed wondering if he had made some mistake and earned himself a reprisal.

"Worry not Adam, you have nothing to fear from me."

"I hope you will forgive me if I don't believe that."

The faint trace of a smile on her lips grew slightly. "Forgiveness is not something given or taken here, but you are entitled to your own opinion as I am mine. Would you like to know my opinion of you?"

Adam tensed his hand turning white as he gripped Wilt tightly but nodded in response.

"You are a capable and charismatic leader, but you are also short sighted and your prejudice blinds you to who your real enemies are."

"Oh? Please tell me who my real enemies are?"

"Yourselves."

Adam Growled and was a hair's breadth from drawing Wilt when he felt his limbs weaken. Looking at his arms and legs they were touched by smoky black tendrils.

"Please let us keep this civil. You must realize on some level that your end goal was never going to be achievable, the kingdoms at large have branded your White Fang as a terrorist organization, even Menagerie does not endorse your efforts, they haven't for a long time at least not publicly."

That caught Adam by surprise, few if any knew that the White Fang on Menagerie did support his efforts, publicly he was denounced as a criminal but privately he had many allies back home on the Faunus island. "Fine, civil. For what reason did you bring me here?"

"Good. Now for the reason you are here is you have been mistreated by a subo..." Salem paused. "by an associate of mine, Cinder Fall. I personally take responsibility for the situation she placed you in, she was sent to Vale to complete a task for me and unfortunately, events transpired that forced her to take a harder approach to completing it, the forceful use of you and your organization was one of the harder approaches. Although if you had simply accepted her first offer everything that followed could have been avoided."

"Please, get to the point."

"You certainly match the owner of that chair, at least in a personality standpoint. Fine, the point of this meeting is for you to agree to work for me, if you agree you will have many powerful allies and your terrorist organization will see new life. All you need to do is agree to help me with a few simple tasks. If you chose to not align yourself with me willingly then you will die. Either way, I will still get what I want."

* * *

Neo sat alone in her shared hideout, it had been almost a week since Roman had left with Cinder and neither had returned, she was only now beginning to worry about the absent man. The worry was doubled since she was running short of food, which meant she would have to go shopping, she shuddered at the thought.

She wasn't opposed to spending Lien and being able to purchase what she wanted and not what Roman decided they needed was another incentive to perform the menial task herself, the greatest detriment was dealing with other people. Still, with a sigh, she got to her feet and proceeded towards the door.

Opening the door she stepped outside right into the chest of a blonde on the other side, Neo's face was enveloped by a soft pillowy cushion she tilted her head back to look at the face of the owner but knew who it was without really needing to.

Yang tried to backpedal away from the awkward interaction but Neo had wrapped her arms around Yang's waist and nuzzled into her breasts even deeper. "Ack, Neo, let me go stop that." Yang lost her footing as a parasol tangled itself between her legs and she fell softly to the ground Neo atop her wearing a mischievous smile.

Neo had had her fun and with an acrobatic grace twisted off of Yangs form and rose to her feet while sending the blonde an expression of curiosity, trying to figure out why Yang had come here alone instead of calling.

Neo watched as the tall blonde regained her feet and returned Neo's gaze though with none of the mischievousness. "Is Roman back yet?"

Pulling forth a scroll Neo punched in a response as she wasn't confident the Female blonde could understand her with just body language like Roman and seemingly the Male Blonde as well. 'No, haven't heard from him all week, Cinder isn't back either. Where is the other Blonde?'

"Jaune is confined to a Hospital bed right now."

'Why are you here, calling was our agreed method of contact this puts Roman and I at risk.'

Yang fished out the contents of her pocket and showed Neo her Scroll, the device was clearly broken. "Can't even find Jaune's, we still have our School Scrolls but both Jaune and Roman warned about using them to contact each other unless it was an emergency."

'So you need new modified Scrolls again?'

"Yes."

'Wait here' Neo vanished inside the building again and returned in a couple minutes with a hand written list which she shoved into Yang's hands. 'I'll have you new Scrolls by tomorrow, pay me back by buying everything on that list and returning it here.'

"Wait wha..." Yang was speaking to empty air as Neo had already vanished in a White Flash leaving her alone in the alley. With a groan of frustration, Yang looked down at the list she now held in concern wondering what horrible things she would be purchasing for the diminutive criminal. "Grocery shopping..."

* * *

Mercury kicked high and then low alternating as rapidly as he could, sweat poured down his face but he ignored it as he pushed his legs harder and harder making sure his recent adjustments to his legs wouldn't cause him any inconvenience if he pushed them. Eventually satisfied with the weight he stopped his flurry of kicks and sat down wiping away the sweat with an already damp towel as he lifted his left leg again and with a screw driver in hand began removing a newly added plate to make sure the components underneath weren't damaging each other.

Mercury had returned to the warehouse in the agriculture district only once since the attack, he had grabbed a couple changes of clothes and a set of tools he used to perform maintenance on his legs, he was glad the building was empty the entire time he was there as his mind still struggled with the idea that Emerald was betraying them. She was the only suitable option among the limited people that knew about them, he had played through the options in his mind many times since his conflict with the blonde swordsman and each time it ended up with Emerald being the only real suspect.

He hadn't spent the entire week brooding over whether or not his partner was or was not a traitor, much of his time was devoted to making sure his new plates better protected his legs from being disabled, which appeared to be working as he inspected the moving parts of his leg before reattaching the plate and moving to his other leg and repeating the process. He knew the drawbacks to these plates as well, if the components underneath were damaged he wouldn't be able to reach and inspect them like he was used to as the plates required tools and time to remove.

Satisfied with both legs he leaned back against the chair he sat in and stared off into space trying to figure out what his plan going forward would be. He had considered many options in the week when but none promised him any real peace.

 _Emerald's Semblance is too important to Cinder's plan's and right now it would simply be my word against her's, Cinder would likely side with Emerald just to keep the use of her Semblance. Cinder didn't even participate in my father's death, and no doubt she could find ample means to prove that, then I would simply be disposed of to not inconvenience her or her plans.  
_

 _What options do I have left? Turning on Emeralds and hoping Cinder supports me is a long shot at best. Running exposes me to my father's friends, I could be unimportant enough to ignore but what kind of life would I have, I don't even know who I would be running from. Stay and wait for an opportunity that works in my favor?_

 _Staying is the only choice isn't it, Stay watch Emerald and find my chance to turn Cinder against her, if my father's friends were strong enough they wouldn't let her stop them from just taking me and dealing with her so she must be strong enough to dissuade professional assassins._

"So that's it isn't it." Mercury stood from his chair and looked towards the bathroom of his tiny hole in the wall hotel room he had been staying in. Grabbing his Scroll he dropped it on the floor and smashed the screen and destroying the device in a single motion.

 _Going to need an excuse for why I wasn't responding to messages and I better think of a good reason for why I have been missing for an entire week._

* * *

Cinder was losing the battle for her body and Roman knew it, but he wondered is Cinder knew there was a battle happening at all. In the frightening week, they have spent together Roman had seen both halves of Cinder and interacted with both.

Her normal persona aside from appearing distracted and irritable was much the same, so much so that Roman felt more afraid of it than the altered Host personality, that is until that personality takes control and then he quickly remembers that this one is far far worse.

Right now Roman was looking at neither, the old smuggler's cave they were hiding away in was quiet of any noise and Roman hoped it would last long enough for him to get some sleep as that had been a precious commodity during his time spent here.

Cinder and the whatever was inside her both appeared tired of controlling the body as there was nothing for them to do in the cave and she/it had deigned to actually stay in the tranced state instead of just sitting down for a moment and then standing up again with a frightening shift in personality.

Both halves were in agreement even if the Cinder half didn't know it, both wanted to return to the city and tomorrow was decided to be the day which suited Roman fine, he dreamed of a fresh change of clothes and more importantly a shower, both those thoughts were second only to his well-hidden fear of creature he was unsure how to kill.

Roman had had a hard time believing Jaune's stories of host's healing at record breaking speeds as well as their insane stamina and durability but the other half of Cinder had treated him to a show one of the nights in the cave.

The Host might have known he was watching he wasn't sure whatever the case if the host knew it didn't care so Roman had watched as the Host seemed intent on testing the limit's its body could endure, it lacerated its own arm and then in moments healed the wound so thoroughly not even a trace of a scar remained, it had shattered its own bones and healed them in moments. It had continued its own self-mutilation for close to an hour, inflicting wound's that ranged from minor abrasions to what should have been fatal injuries. The only thing it didn't do was try to remove a body part, that knowledge Roman filed away as the Host grew bored soon after and returned to the Trance state Cinder used and both halves had chosen to remain in the state.

* * *

She stared at the Grimm in its cage, the arachnid creature below her stared at nothing.

The creature was never doing anything when she visited the mental prison.

The absence of doing anything made her paranoid because she was certain it was doing something she just couldn't figure out what, and the lack of having any idea what it was was not helping causing her to invision crazy scenarios.

She had hoped Roman might have spotted something wrong with her in the week they have been cooped up in this cave, if he had he didn't seem inclined to share and she was having issue's trying to figure out a way to broach the subject with her sarcastic criminal associate.

Mentally pacing around the top of the walls to the Grimm's prison she watched in great detail every move or lack thereof of the Grimm in question, not just the Grimm but how the walls appeared, scanning everything with a scrutiny that she felt was unmatched, yet when her inspection came away with nothing, in frustration she swept the entire cell, again and again, looking for the flaw or imperfection that would explain the feeling of uncertainty that she couldn't shake.

She missed sleep, it was one of three thoughts that came again and again to her mind, the other two were completing her job for Salem and lastly the nagging sensation that her body was doing things she was unaware of, trapped in a cave where she could do nothing to forward Salem's goals she had focused on the two other thoughts.

Thoughts of a comfortable bed and a soft pillow seeped into her mind unbidden as she made mental laps around the prison.

Another lap completed and her frustration became apparent, with a cry she shifted an entire wall in her mind, halving the space the Grimm inside had, and also she could feel it slip from her grasp, the power to control Grimm.

She smiled, she had no Grimm left to control so why should the Prison remain the way she had remade it to allow that.

With the loss of half its cell the Grimm inside finally became animated, it turned to face the offending wall but did nothing else.

Annoyed by the simple reaction Cinder pushed to wall further until the spot the Grimm stood became a part of the wall, the Grimm hissed in fury and spat an impotent gob of fluids at the wall and another towards where Cinder stood overlooking the cage.

She stopped.

With a penetrating gaze Cinder looked not at the Grimm in the cage or the gob of visually disgusting fluid's that had struck the cell where she stood, but she looked to where the Grimm had stood moments earlier, the floor was now a part of the wall and the substance seemed to perfectly cover the spot now.

Working her mind she willed the substance covering the spot away.

The Grimm below remained motionless, simply watching as events happened.

A hole was revealed, from within now that they had been exposed a swarm of arachnid Grimm scurried from the hole, there minuscule form's numbered in the hundreds if not thousands, Cinder was shocked by their sudden appearance and the speed in which they moved.

She had no idea how many escaped through the many tiny holes in the cage, that didn't matter right now, Cinder moved her mind to act and the Cage sealed completely, even the hole now that she was aware of it was correct the contents pushed out and the surface was restored.

Cinder then turned and watched as those that escaped the case leapt to attack.

This was her mind and while she was unprepared and caught off guard she called forth her powers inside her own mind, burning away any who moved to close, the next batch drove forward to attack and she brought forth another gout of flame.

Her mind reeled, she felt the Grimm inside the cage attacking her as well, it fed, the action distracting her as a third group of creatures attack this time several hitting.

* * *

 **Another one done.  
**

 **For those who saw the tease all the way back in Forever Fall good on ya, a few of you guessed that Adam would be getting to visit Salem at some point and get a real trump card for his rather limited fighting style.**

 **We also got to have a little bit of fun with Yang and Neo, I enjoyed writing that.**

 **Mercury is weighing his options at Jaune's fairly convincing lie, at least convincing enough to mess with Mercury anyways.**

 **Roman's having a nap.**

 **Cinder, she's having a bad time.**

 **Alright, my Beta is a bit behind so the proper beta'ing of the early chapters is going to be at a much slower pace that innitially indicatied, for that reason if why I have had two chapters come up this week even when I said I wouldn't have any and was going to focus on the Beta'ing.**

 **So if your a new ready picking up this chapter and deciding to go back and find out what the hell is going on then please bear with the less than ideal state of some of my earlier chapters.**

 **Anyways as always.**

 **Follow / Favorite / Review**


	35. Chapter 35

Roman stood at the entrance to the Smuggler's cave, clothing scorched and hanging off his frame in tatters. His Aura had flared shielding him from the explosion that had awoken him from his slumber.

His Aura had been wracked by constant explosions as he fled the cave, each explosion originated from Cinder, or her form at least. Roman couldn't look directly at the entrance, the light inside was too bright, the piercing shaft hurt to look at.

Pulsing waves of heat emanated from the cave gradually increasing in temperature to the point where Roman was pushed farther back as the air became too hot to breathe.

The waves of heat stopped all at once, a whine of energy that pierced his skull screamed powerfully from the cave, Roman had no idea what the noise meant and decided he didn't desire to know, turning he fled the site retreating into the dense foliage of the forest eventually reaching where he had landed the Bullhead a week prior.

The noise never faded though, instead of decreasing with the distance it rose in power.

Struggling with the hatch on the Bullhead he tossed it open and climbed inside slamming the hatch closed behind him.

Now encased in the metal machine the noise dulled to a bearable level but still present, it did he give himself a moment to pause and catch his breath.

Trying to calm his nerves he reached the cockpit as the noise slowly started to build and reach the level it had been at while he was outside. Roman quickly hit the necessary switches and hit the ignition and thanked whoever might be listening as the Bullhead roared to life.

Pushing the throttle more than he needed the aircraft jumped into the air with a jerk that sank Roman's stomach at the motion which was immediately reversed with a mid air stop as his stomach moved into his throat this time as the whining noise reached a fevered pitch before stopping entirely.

The disappearance of the noise only panicked him more, the whine and buildup had been something Roman was familiar with in his other life, explosions had become his thing after Neo died to one. He was more familiar with bombs that simply triggered and exploded but there were other ways a bomb could go off especially if the thing about to explode wasn't naturally a bomb to begin with.

Cinder definitely wasn't a Bomb that was simply going to explode, whatever conflict she was engaged in with her other half was going to build until completion.

Without warning, the Bullhead seemingly dropped for no reason, and it repeated the motion again, each time he would feel a drop of a few feet, staring out his window he watched as waves of air were being drawn to the cave he had so recently fled from.

Cranking the throttle to a level the modified bullhead should realistically never reach as the engine roared but the entire machine began to shake violently as he sought to escape the coming result of all the effects behind and below himself.

'Crack'

"..."

"..."

* * *

The creatures in her mind stuck her mental body physically, the blows beside seeming to jar her thought process appeared wholly ineffectual at doing real damage. The same could not be said for the beast she had caged, it fed off her, the pain was immediate and severe but she refused to allow the Grimm any advantages.

In her mind, she called forth her Semblance, the action did not know how to separate from her body as a whole so as she began wielding the fire that came naturally to her in her mind her disconnected body tried to mirror the actions.

She was entirely unaware to this and she hadn't the mental fortitude to spare to consider it either, her full attention was invested in ignoring the pain that coursed through her mind as her prisoner fed, its children or minions that had escaped the cell approached her en masse, while the blows alone caused her not damage they momentarily shattered her concentration allow the pain she already struggled to cope with flare for a brief instant to ungodly levels before she would regain control.

She swept her powers around limitlessly in her mind, anything that approached her was met with a wall of flame so hot it destroyed the bastardized abominations. Pouring forth her power she swept her entire mental castle with flames every nook and cranny was exposed to the flame, she was meticulous wanting nothing that escaped the cage to remain free in her mind.

Only once she was sure that her mind was clean did she relax, letting her Semblance fade from her mind.

Perhaps realizing its attack failed the beast had stopped feeding on her at some point, Cinder smiled as she returned to the cage and using her mind opened a small hole to allow herself to peer in and gloat over her prisoners failed attempt at wresting control of her body from her.

A portion of the prison pulled away and Cinder looked in, the entire cage roiled as the hundreds or thousands of abominations that had failed to escape the cage moved as a unified mass.

The mass left no part of the cell uncovered, even her prisoner was covered by the mass, though the mass sensed the alteration to their cage and began leaping or climbing towards the solitary opening.

She was prepared for this though and the hole slammed shut, or it should have, as more and more creatures began spilling from the hole she watched in horror as her mental castle lost its golden sheen, turning off color to a greening tinged bronze, cobwebs, and strands of fluid hung heavily from every surface.

"WHAT!" Cinder lashed forth a gout of flame poured from her arm, the flames that before had appeared so frightening and powerful now looked pathetic and weak, the flames licked at the cobwebs washing them away in an instant but the thicker strands of webbing refused her efforts to ignite.

 _When did this_ _happen?_

Cinder fell back from the cage, the amount of lesser creatures pouring from it grew too great for her flames to manage. She looked all throughout her mental castle for some place untouched by the discoloring bronze effect and devoid of the webbing.

'WHAM'

Cinder paused, a wave of flame burned in front of her as she struggled to hold the small creatures at bay.

'WHAM'

Cinder turned to look in the direction of the cage.

'WHAM'

Her castle shuddered violently with the third impact, she retained her footing but her castle, no her mind, shifted slightly, everything was twisted just a few degrees.

'WHAM'

Her mind shifted again this time more violently. Fear began to take hold as she sought to undo the effects that were happening, every time she began to concentrate on her mind one of the lesser creatures would interrupt her, they didn't attack en masse like the original creatures that escaped her cage, these ones came one at a time only appearing when she appeared too distracted to notice them approach.

'WHAM'  
'CRUNCH'

The new noise came with a wave of nausea that sent Cinder to the floor, which inadvertently saved her from falling from the side of her mental castle as it now stood a full ninety degrees tilted. The nearby offending Grimm creatures were not so lucky as she watched several dozen fall from the wall around her into the oblivion that was outside her castle.

Standing once more and currently free of attackers she focused her mind inward and when the next hit came she was ready.

'WHAM'  
'SHRRRRRKK'

Her castle began moving against the tilting a barely noticeable degree but Cinder rallied behind her small victory and began using her mind offensively as well.

Imagining the entire structure as a whole she began closing corridor's free of infestation, once a corridor was closed she imagined washing over the area with a fire burning it clear of cobwebs and the Grimm's fluids. When she discovered Grimm creatures she would collapse the corridor crushing those inside before again bathing the area in fire.

Repeating this process CInder eventually cleared the entire perimeter of his castle the walls regained there Golden Luster once more. The assault on the Cage inside never ceased but the castle never shifted again, locked permanently in an almost ninety-degree tilt.

'WHAM'  
'CRASH'

Cinder felt it, her prison had failed, using her mind's eye she looked at the cell and it stood torn open from the inside. From inside she spotted the source of her current situation.

The Grimm had changed, no longer the fat ugly arachnid it was before now it looked similar to Salem's personal minion. Its bulbous abdomen remained but its fat hairy legs were missing, now it rose on eight sleek powerful legs, each tipped in jagged looking barbs, the torso was now humanoid in appearance looking like that of an undressed woman in her prime, another set of limbs were present, a monstrous pair of arms that looked both humanoid and arachnid, lastly came the head, unlike Salem's Grimm which had a head that would be considered beautiful, this Grimm did not, the head was oblong shaped and fierce structure, eight eyes were still present and no nose was visible, the mouth stood open as a flesh filled chasm, teeth jutting forward violently and a viscous fluid dripping from its permanently open jaw.

Cinder recoiled violently from the image her mind had shown her.

' _Ccciiinnnnddeeerr.'_

Her name reverberated through her mind, the voice no longer sounded alien and chittery, the new voice sounded almost guttural, like someone was trying to speak using their throat, which Cinder believed to be the case as the mouth she had seen was likely unable to form words.

 _'Whhherree ddooo yoouuuu hhhiiiiidddee.'_

Cinder pulled the cage the Grimm stood perched on out from underneath it, the Grimm caught hold of the wall and pulled itself up and over, it's children were not so lucky, hundreds fell into the newly formed pit that was filled instantly with fire.

"I hide nowhere, this is my body and my mind, and I have had enough of sharing both!" Cinder shouted inside her mind as she began to collapse walls together, mentally erasing several dozen creatures at a time.

 _'Ssshhhhaaaarrrrreeee? Nnnnoooo, wwweeeee nnneeevvveeerrr ssshhhaaaarrrrreeeeddddd.'_ Cinder found the Grimm and sent a wall collapsing towards it but the agile creature merely sidestepped the attack and moved further into her castle.

Cinder watched the creature with her mind's eye, its movements were focused and precise as it pushed through her mental castle, its many legs carried it forward with purpose but the goal Cinder didn't know. "Believe what you may but you are not long for this world, I will destroy you in here and then still find a way to fulfill my promise to Salem."

 _'Kiiillllll, nnnooo, yyyooooouuuuu wwwiilllll nnnoooottttt killlll mmmmeeeee jjjuuusssstttt aassss Iiiii wwwooooonnnnn'ttttt kkkkiiiiiillllll yyyyoooouuuuu.'_ The Grimm moved without purpose or goal aside from avoiding its hosts attack's, her goal was simply to focus her Host on herself while her minions took the time to find Cinder.

Cinder paused and scrutinized the Grimm. _What did it mean it won't kill me, it is clearly capable of it, just feeding to restore its own strength cripples me._ With a sweep of a wall that destroyed itself then reformed whole she swept away another dozen of the black creatures that had strayed too close to her.

The Grimm turned and with what could approximate as a smile began to move in earnest through the castle, dodging collapsing walls that tried to crush her and sidestepping gouts of mental flame meant to drive her away.

Cinder watched in fury as the Grimm avoided everything she sent at it, its new agile form rapidly closing the distance between it and herself until only a single corridor remained. _Fine, I'll deal with you myself just need to deal with these first._ The walls around her small chamber fell away and with it a cascade of energy that flung away all of the lesser black creatures that crawled through her mind.

Cinder pulled down the castle around herself not wanting to give the Grimm anywhere to hide, in mere moments the castle was no more and the two remaining figures stood in an empty black and red expanse of nothingness.

"Their beast, no more children for you and nowhere for you to hide!" Cinder screamed mentally at the figure across from her, her mind reeled from a sense of vertigo she couldn't shake, everything in her mind's eye still had a disorienting almost ninety-degree tilt to it on the featureless landscape.

' _Iiiii, nnneeeevvveeeerrrrr hhhhiiiiiddddd, yyyyooouuuuu lllllooocccckkkkkeeedddd mmmmeeeeee aaaawwwwwaaaayyyyy. Sssyyymmmbbbbyyyyooootttiiiicccc, nnnnooooottttt ppppaaaarrrrraaaasssiiiitttiiiicccc. Hhhuuummmmaaaannnnn'sssss nnneeeevvvveeeerrrrr uuunnnndddeeerrrrsssttttaaannndddd tttthhhaaatttt!'_ The Grimm began to move forward cautiously as Cinder took in the words.

"You expect me to believe that? You attacked me the moment you entered my body, we fought for weeks." Cinder formed and launched a spear of flame at the slowly approaching Grimm, the spear sailed harmlessly past the Grimm as Cinders aim was off due to the odd vertigo.

 _'Hhhhaaaaadddd ttttooooo mmmaaakkkkeeee ssssuuuuurrrrreeee yyyyyooooouuuuuu wwwwweeeeeerrrrrreeeee ssstttrrrrrronnnnggg eeeennnnnooouuuggggghhhh, wwwwwweeeeeeeaaaakkkkkk hhhhhhooooooosssssstttt wwweeeeaaaakkkk sssseeeeelllllfffff.'_ The Grimm watched as another pair of spears harmlessly sailed harmlessly past itself, they were however followed by a curtain of flame that it had to leap to avoid. _  
_

Cinder squinted her eyes as they began to blur and her vision started to swim. Feeling instead for seeing the Grimm she bathed the area around her in flames but the presence she felt only moved closer.

An alien hand grabbed her by the shoulder and she spun from the grip, already being disoriented by vertigo she was suffering in her mind and feeling weak her mental form collapsed onto the floor where she lay motionless, the sickness from the vertigo left her prostrate before the Grimm as the abilities she wielded inside her mind slipped from her grasp as her concentration lapsed.

"What will you do with me?" Cinder asked weakly.

The Grimm picked the mental form of Cinder off the floor with a single arm and stretched its jaw wide and with frightening power sank its teeth into her left shoulder ripping it from the mental body, no blood or bone was present in the mental landscape but the pain was unimaginable to Cinder, her weakened mind flared to life, and with every fiber of her being that remained she concentrated on herself, through shut eyelid's she fought to ignore the pain and simply focus, pulling everything she had, reserves she didn't know existed we called upon to feed the power building inside her.

The Grimm stared at its host in its hand in shock, she had thought her host defeated and she could take her time and merge their essences slowly, A Grimm was not meant to have Aura and the melding needed to be dealt with carefully lest problems occurred, The Grimm knew Cinder would never listen to her, no human would willingly give themselves to this joining but that mattered little to the Grimm as they always made it happen.

Her host, Cinder, was proving a problem though, she fought the process better than any before her, and now when she had appeared defeated and she thought she would have a moment to meld Cinder had begun a final act of defiance.

The process once started could not be halted, that would spell death for them both.

The Grimm widened its jaws again and ripped off both of Cinders mental legs consuming both in an instant, hurriedly swallowing as she readied to bite again. The loss of mass to Cinders mental form was not slowing down the buildup of power, instead, the Grimm in fear for its life realized the power was only growing faster, in desperation the Grimm turned its jaw and bit down hard on Cinder's skull.

'Crack'

"..."

"..."

* * *

Many miles away from the events surrounding Cinder and Roman a pair of Scroll's ring once each before stopping.

A young woman with pink and brown hair looked at her scroll in hesitation, the ring tone used was something Roman had set up for her in case something went seriously wrong, with an apprehensive push of a finger she looked at her scroll and after a moment stood and with a flash of white vanished.

* * *

She had felt the vibration once, the feeling was so brief she thought she had imagined it until she reached for her scroll to see who had dialed her personal line.

She recognized the number in an instant. "Excuse me Amber, I need to take this." Without waiting for a reply Winter Schnee left her shared office in Beacon Academy and made straight for the bullhead docks, messaging ahead to tell her pilot to have her personal craft prepped for her to take out solo.

* * *

 **Another one done.  
**

 **Easily the shortest Chapter I have written for this story.**

 **Short isn't a bad thing or a sign that I'm struggling with the story.**

 **This chapter is short simply on the fact I felt the content involved deserved to be its own instead of having anything with it to take away from it.**

 **A great deal happened and I left you all with another cliffhanger without resolving anything, well, that's not true, there are several hints in this chapter and the previous two that are pointing towards something major.**

 **Anyways as always lemme know what ya think or just message me to chat if ya feel like it, my weekend starting Aug4th is free and I'm simply going to be writing.**


	36. Chapter 36

A flash of white, the click of a heeled boot against a rock then another flash of white.

Neo repeated the process over and over as she traveled through the dense foliage of Forever Fall, the forest stood quieter than ever before in history. The ever present Grimm had been all but wiped out during the attack on Vale, a number survived but it would be years before the forest we become a real threat to the city again, if ever.

The Vale Council was smart and Ozpin even more so, with the Forest emptied of Grimm there were likely plans for an expansion already made to make use of the land in such a scenario.

She didn't care about any of that as she finally paused in her breakneck race to reach the source of Roman's call. She pulled out her scroll again and held it in front of her making sure the direction indicator was still pointing the direction she was heading. Glancing at the device she turned a few degrees North and vanished in a white flash, repeating the process, again and again, slowly making her way closer to her destination.

* * *

Winter Schnee glanced at her Scroll repeatedly as she flew first Southeast of Beacon out over the Emerald Forest before turning sharply north and circling around to head towards the indicator left on her Scroll.

She watched her radar making sure to keep clear of the dozen or so Bullheads that were flying grid patterned over the red forest, searching for the missing horde of Grimm that Qrow insisted was present and heading towards Vale yet had seemingly vanished without a trace.

Shifting the pitch of her aircraft she began to rapidly gain altitude, her craft easily handled the ascent and once she was certain she was high enough no system in Vale would discover her craft she set it to auto pilot and went to go prepare her gear.

Inside a strongbox located behind her pilot's seat rested not only her weapon but several canisters a highly refined dust, far more powerful than you would find in any shop or even given to the specialist of the Atlas military. No, this dust was directly from the Schnee Dust Company and would cost enough to make some of the richest people on Remnant balk at the price attached to it. Winter removed the weapon strapping it to her side and pulled out a single canister of Dust affixing it securely to her belt.

From deeper in the strong box she pulled out the rest of her gear and once everything was securely fastened to her she retook the pilot's seat and began a rapid descent towards the woods below.

Or what should have been wood's, through her window as she drifted below the cloud line the white fluffy cloud was slowly being tinged a sooty black, Winter dove her machine steeply until it broke through the layer of cloud and smoke and she was witness to a raging forest fire. Shifting her eyes from the fire raging below her she looked to her scroll and the direction it indicated, it was pointing nearly straight down.

With practiced motion she calmly adjusted her aircraft so that it hovered in the air and tilted the craft forward allowing her to look almost directly towards the earth below, eyes shape from years of practice immediately spotted the wreckage of a crashed Bullhead and with another glance at her scroll to confirm that where she was heading.

The fire had saved her considerable time as she was able to set her craft down right next to the crashed Bullhead, once touched down Winter hit a switch and before she even made it out of the cockpit the ramp at the rear of her vessel was already completely down, grabbing her first aid kit and drawing her weapon she made her way down the ramp and stepped foot on the burnt ground, the ash and soot kicked up by the aircrafts landing filtered through the air staining her pristine white uniform, the fact of it happening not bothering her but the need to come up with an excuse for the ruined uniform did annoy her.

The surrounding area was clear of both flames and smoke so she breathed easier as she wouldn't have to deal with either of those while she searched the wreckage for her target.

The muted sounds of flames in the distance was the only noise present, as she carefully picked her way towards the crash, keeping her eyes peeled for any danger or sign of a trap, however unlikely that might be she couldn't rule out the possibility.

Roman might have earned a favor from her that she was intent on repaying but not at the cost of her own life.

The crash hadn't been kind to the Bullhead, while it might still be relatively intact the frame was twisted by the impact with the ground and the cockpit rested underneath the bulk of the craft.

With a light jump boosted by her Aura, she landed lightly on the downed craft her boots making a faint click as her heels touched down.

Winter stilled as an inhuman shriek rocked the area.

Turning the direction of the noise she squinted trying to find anything through the haze of smoke, the cry due to the volume she had no idea how close or far away the source was but knew it was a shriek like nothing she had heard before.

When the noise didn't repeat itself she turned her attention back to the Bullhead and the hatch she was standing near, with a frown of concern she stared at the twisted hatch wondering if it would even open.

Bending low she grabbed the manual release and with a sigh of relief swung the hatch open, silently thanking the small blessing that the hatch for how warped it appeared hadn't binded itself shut.

Just as she was about to drop inside the craft the inhuman Shriek repeated itself and this time the noise was accompanied by a sudden rapid drop in temperature and through the smoke, a huge indistinguishable pillar of black and orange light shot into the heavens before swinging wildly in multiple directions before vanishing.

The sight caused her no small degree of panic as both her Academy and Military knowledge could not give a name to any Grimm capable of such a display, only something Qrow had told her about some of 'Salem's' personal abominations he had encountered in his tenure as Ozpins agent gave her any insight into what if anything was the source of the display she had just bore witness too.

Winter's hand strayed to her Scroll, no matter her debt to Roman this was something that couldn't be ignored. Glancing at the device in her hand she pressed the Button that would connect her directly to Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon.

The tiny screen flashed once before Ozpin's face appeared, the background not matching his office.

"Winter? What is it, where are you?" Much like Winter didn't recognize the background Ozpin stood in, he was likewise perplexed by Winters, not to mention that soot and ash in the air coating Winter in black filth.

"I'm sorry to say that I was taking care of a..." Winter looked at the hatch below her searching for a way to describe the situation. "...a personal debt." Winter jumped as the Shriek repeated for a third time, no pillar of energy was seen this time.

"Winter, what was that noise?" Ozpin looked away from the Scroll and his background shifted to him transitioning from whatever room he was in too a more private location.

"I am not sure, but one of the shrieks was accompanied with a..." Winter paused again unable to think of a way to describe the shaft of energy she had seen moments earlier. "... I'm not sure what, a power, something I cannot describe."

Ozpin looked through the device in concern, the Shriek was also unfamiliar to him, he knew of Grimm and subspecies that very few new of, not that he had personally seen or encountered them, no he simply had access to a wonderfully vast library and spent much time familiarizing himself with knowledge that the masses ignored. "Leave your Scroll active Winter, I will have Qrow rendezvous with you soon."

"I'm not sure Qrow will be enough Headmaster."

"Qrow isn't being sent to engage the source of the noise or power you witnessed. Finish your personal debt and take care Winter, if this creature is one of Salem's then I highly recommend being prepared to flee at a moments notice." Ozpin's face vanished and a mute screen appeared over her Scroll, Ozpin had requested the line left open so they could track her exact location.

Leaving her Scroll active she tucked it into a pocket while trying her best to ignore the fourth ear-splitting Shriek, as she lowered herself gently into the darkened hold of the crashed Bullhead.

The hold wasn't as devoid of light as she assumed, in a dimly lit corner a single scroll paid vigil to a silent scene.

Neo knelt on the floor of the Bullhead's hold gently cradling the head of her mentor, Roman Torchwick.

Winter took one look at the man and knew instantly that he was far beyond the point of needing the Medikit she had grabbed.

A fifth shriek echoed across the landscape though it was distorted by the walls of the bullhead Winter though it sounded closer this time.

"Neo... Neo can you hear me?" Winter asked quietly yet urgently the most recent shriek had put her on edge as she felt something seriously wrong was happening outside.

Neo, if she had heard her didn't move except to gently caress Roman's face with a hand that shook with uncertainty as if she didn't believe the obvious truth of what was before her.

Roman Torchwick was dead.

* * *

Ozpin moved through the hall's as quickly as he could, Qrow had already been dispatched and he cut his visit with Glynda woefully short as he needed to make his way back to his office.

 _This was too much too soon, if this is Salem then she is becoming either bolder or desperate, and I'm not sure which of those two choices frighten me more. There is the third choice, the second party with abilities similar to Salem's._

Ozpin pushed that thought aside, if another was capable of the same abilities as Salem then he wasn't sure what chance Vale stood currently.

It had only been a week since the Red Mist Massacre of the city, and three weeks since the incident in Forever Fall with the White Fang.

Vale was not ready for another conflict and his allies, barring a few personal friends, were too far away to lend aid if what Winter discovered turned out to be a direct threat to the Kingdom of Vale.

Upon reaching the elevator that would take him to his office he was glad to see both Professor Port and Oobleck waiting outside it. With a nod of greeting the three men entered the elevator.

"Ozpin, if I may ask your message, was... unclear on details." Port looked to his friend and employer concerned over the hasty summons in regards to some new possible threat.

"That is because I currently am unclear of the details myself. Our newest addition has come across something while taking care of a personal debt, Qrow has been dispatched to observe and report back but we have other matters to attend too." The elevator came to a stop and the three men filed out and took up chairs around Ozpins desk. "Bartholemew, what sort of resources and mission ready huntsmen do we have active currently." Ozpin knew a rough answer of who would be capable to respond to an emergency summons, the list was actually quite large, however, at the moment, the list was littered with injured Huntsmen.

Oobleck quickly looked to a tablet in his arms and scanned through pages of information a slight frown appeared the more time he spent inspecting the pages he fliped through. "The list is not promising, any full teams we would trust to be discrete are also the teams that suffered the most injury during the recent attack, nothing serious but complete Aura exhaustion is keeping everyone on the list out of combat for the foreseeable days to come. I could cobble together a relatively functional team with those that are capable and ready to fight."

Ozpin sat in silence and mentally cursed at the situation, he needed to have a force ready to move at a moments notice in case Qrow' report came back with bad news but a team made from individuals who never worked together before was not an ideal solution and he knew it. "Bart, create two teams and place yourself and Peter on them as well, I need people with level heads that will understand what they may be facing."

"Very well." Bartholemew stood and looked at Peter both men nodded and turned to leave the room.

Ozpin watched the two men leave and desired to join them but with a sigh put out a call to the Vale councilmembers calling for an emergency meeting.

In short order, three screens came to life.

"Council members, I call you today to inform you of a situation I was just made away of myself." Ozpin watched as three sets of weary eyes looked toward him through their monitors. "Forever Fall is Burning and to make matters worse an unknown Grimm has been encountered in the vicinity of the fire."

"Is this Grimm or the fire going to be a threat to the city?"

"The fire will likely not spread to the city, as for the Grimm I cannot say. Negativity in the City is at a record high at the moment and the odds it will be drawn here are high. Two teams are being formed right now to act once I have word back from my agent who was sent to personally inspect the fire and discover first hand what type of enemy we might face."

"You normally do not contact us about such matters Headmaster, while we appreciate being kept in the loop you only ever do so when you need something."

Ozpin leaned forward in his chair and gave each of the three council members a short but penetrating gaze. "I will be joining the Teams assembling to confront this threat if it is deemed necessary that an armed response is warranted." Ozpin could see with his sudden proclamation that all three Members of the Vale council were at a lose on how to appropriately respond.

Finally, the spokesperson managed to collect his thoughts enough to respond. "Ozpin, I, no the council would like for you to reconsider this action. You are too important a person to be so frivolously leaving to attend to such a likely pointless task." The spokesman did well to hide his shock as well as a slight tremor of fear. Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Academy in the twenty years the Councilmember had held his position Ozpin had only left Beacon a handful of times and each time he left those who went with him in the times he needed reinforcements they spoke highly of the skill and Power Ozpin wielded. Ozpin volunteering himself to this mission spoke volumes on how considerable the Headmaster assumed the threat facing them to be.

"I understand your perspective, but I will not be swayed. Vale is short on a great many resources at the moment, uninjured Huntsmen are a rare commodity currently. The two teams I have assembling at the moment are not made of Huntsmen who have trained together for years and work together in harmony, no, currently the teams we can field that number in that category number at Zero."

The council members all averted there gave from his monitor and turned to quickly discuss something between the three of them.

"Are matter's truly that dire currently? Is Vale lacking that much in defense?" The spokesman asked his voice trying to remain calm but he was clearly concerned about the news of how undermanned their defenders were at the moment. Reports from the aftermath of the Battle had been too numerous to properly remember everything that came across his desk in the past week, coupled with meetings and planning sessions and dozens of other things the councilmembers were expected to do this piece of information for how important it was to Vale hadn't struck its full weight until just now.

"I'm afraid so Councilmembers, Currently our walls are being manned by more of my students than graduate Huntsmen. Beacon's private Dust stores have been opened to outfit those defending the walls every advantage due to recent shortages."

"Will we find this information in any of the reports that have crossed our desk's in this past week or is this another of the many things you choose to not keep us informed of?" A Gruff older voice of the most senior council member cut through the monitors.

"You will. Dr. Oobleck has made sure all events since the siege have crossed your desk, no matter how trivial they may be in the long run." Ozpin glossed over the subject, he had specifically had Batholemew flood the Council members with updates, schedules, and itineraries. While all the information was 100% accurate there was a fair deal of overflow he knew the councilmembers would not be able to read and check everything so some of his more questionable decisions and requests would likely slip past unnoticed, such as basically turning Beacons students into temporary security for the city, a decision that would likely have been strongly opposed as few would accept being protected by those who couldn't be considered fully fledged huntsmen.

"What about the Atlas forces that helped with the attack recently could they not be asked to aid us again?" The spokesman asked this time cutting off the older gruffer mans next likely pointless complaint, the eldest council member was well known to dislike Headmaster Ozpin.

"They have already returned to Atlas, the only personnel that remains still are a pair of Atlassian Doctors and Ms. Winter Schnee. Now I'm afraid I have to cut this meeting short as I have several things to do before departing." Ozpin reached forward to hang up the call.

"I assume since you are so short handed and will be heading out into the field yourself that both Peter Port and Bartholemew Oobleck are also participating? Who dare I ask will be in charge of Beacon in your absence?" The Gruff Council members asked his voice salivating at the thought of even gaining temporary access to Beacon.

"Simple, Glynda Goodwitch is the Deputy Headmaster so she will be in charge during my absence."

"Ms. Goodwitch? Is she not still hospitalized?"

As if a timed to perfection Ozpins elevator opened and in stepped Glynda Goodwitch. "As you can see Ms. Goodwitch has made a much swifter recovery than first anticipated, now really I must be going, please feel free to call again in my absence Ms. Goodwitch will be delighted to hear from any one of you." Ozpin watched as the Gruff council member looked at the screen and without even saying his farewell signed off, the other member who had been silent the entire time wished him the best before logging off.

"Ozpin if I may speak candidly with you now that we are alone?" The spokesman looked at Glynda who now that she had moved fully into the room looked severely pale and disoriented likely only on her feet because of a sense of duty that ruled over her life.

"Of course, please my time is your time."

"Of course, thank you. A simple question. Should we be prepared to evacuate Vale?"

Ozpin looked towards the last remaining monitor glad that at least one of the Vale Council understood the possible severity of the situation. "Yes."

With a severe look of shock and resignation, the spokesman for the council nodded his head and ended the call.

"Here Glynda, take a seat." Ozpin swiftly stood and helped Glynda into the most comfortable chair the office held, the fact that it was his chair behind his desk mattered little to him.

"Thank you Ozpin."

After fussing over Glynda for a moment making sure she was comfortable he disappeared into the elevator and found a wheelchair pushed far into the corner so that none of the Council members would have been able to see it from the camera's present in his office. "Think nothing of it, Glynda, we both know you would do the same for me."

"Ozpin, what has you so shaken, I have personally seen you contend with Salem's minions on multiple occasions never have you appeared overly concerned."

Pressing a concealed switch Ozpin and Glynda watched as a small wall cabinet opened, Ozpin reached inside and pulled out multiple objects several of which disappeared into his pockets but the last two items removed were not immediately pocketed.

Both items were placed on the desk in front of Glynda.

"This scroll contains security access permissions to the entirety of Beacon Academy. This book, however, will inform you of the location the true relic is located."

"Headmaster, I don't like where this discussion is going." Glynda fiercely glared at her companion a dread settling over her.

"Glynda trust me I'm not leaving with the intention of martyring myself. I'm simply playing the situation appropriately. Peter, Bart, Qrow and Myself will be out of the city, if you were fit for combat you would be accompanying us as well and this duty would be passed to another. The fact I can give you this task though causes a great weight to be lifted from my shoulders as there is no one else I would rather trust with this information."

Glynda stared at the Headmaster still her fierce gaze gone, replaced with one of solemn understanding as Ozpin said his farewell and left through the elevator.

* * *

Qrow leapt from the Bullhead, instructing the pilot to turn around as he did. Once clear of the craft and sure the pilot had heard his orders he shifted to his avian form and pulled up from his swan dive into the ground.

Flexing his wings enough to level out he used the momentum gained from his much heavy human form to glide the several miles needed to reach the edge of the fire, only after passing through some smoke did he begin to work his wings to keep himself level as the varying air temperature caused his gliding to no longer work.

The wall of smoke obscured his vision and his eyes began to water from the mixture of smoke stinging his eyes and his slow gradual starvation of air, even as high up as he was finding breathable pockets were simply him flying into open sky and quickly inhaling as much as he could before plunging into the smoke again.

Beating his wings faster he sighed in relief when he pushed through the barrier into the area that had already been ravaged completely by the fire.

Blinking rapidly and doing several lazy circles Qrow cleared his eyes of the smoke and ash as well as coughed the smoke from his lungs before starting his search in earnest.

His search didn't turn out to be all that difficult, a shriek of rage echoed across the landscape and with it a shaft of black and orange color streaked through the sky seemingly at nothing. Swooping close to the ground Qrow hastily flew under a burnt and collapsed tree and shifted back to his normal form and pulled out his scroll to see where Winter was in reference to his location and with a grim expression and a wary glance he looked in the direction Winter's locator indicated and it pointed frighteningly close to the source of the shaft of light and the terrifying shriek.

 _Great..._

* * *

Neo wasn't sure what was going on around her, someone kept speaking to her, a voice she didn't recognize.

The voice once calm and level had been increasing in volume and a sense of urgency had grown behind that.

She didn't care though, Roman was dead, she had refused to admit it when she found the crashed bullhead and slipped inside, even when she found his body resting almost peacefully against one of the hard metal walls she held hope that he survived.

He had looked so peaceful, a peace that she had never seen him wear in her entire life.

The expression caused Neo to pause before reaching out and touching her friend, she knew then that Roman was dead, her friend and mentor died alone in a crashed Bullhead, the mere thought of that outcome seemed wrong to Neo. He might have been a criminal, but this death wasn't for him.

She didn't know how she ended up in her current position, one moment she was a half step away from simply grabbing his coat, now she sat deathly still his head cradled in her lap.

The moment was awful, a tragedy that she didn't know how to solve.

A white light appeared at the sides of her vision, the light distracted her from her grieving as she turned to investigate it to remove the offending light source she paused as a completely white Beowulf stood beside Winter Schnee.

She wanted to react to the Grimm but she could not summon the energy to move, instead she watched limply as the oddly colored Beowulf gingerly picked up Roman's body and carried it out of the Bullhead, the absence of Roman's body seemed to give Neo energy as she attempted to follow only to have her legs buckle. Collapsing on the cold metal floor, she pushed herself up and sought to follow still, a pair of arms gently helped her to her feet, a voice much closer than before came with the voice.

The words that came with the voice were lost to the haze that was her mind, the lost words seemed both soothing yet also urgent.

Crossing through the hatch Neo found herself staring into a blackened and turbulent sky, traces of smoke and ash floated through the air and the entire landscaped looked to be covered in layers of ash.

The arms supporting her guided her to the ground and then into another hard metal space. On the floor in front of here was Roman again, looking peaceful so much so that he appeared to only be sleeping.

A deafening noise occurred, it phased her little, her enter focus had returned to watching Romans motionless body. Arms, the same pair that had helped her move appeared again, roughly they reached around her and she felt herself become restrained by a pair of straps and then the arms were gone again.

Her body lurched violently as a sudden dropping motion occurred, the nauseating feeling didn't persist and she felt her body return to normal as she continued to simply watch her friend's lifeless form, lose filling her mind.

* * *

 **Well, it's done and as much as I wanted to I kept to the planned outcome I originally envisioned.  
**

 **Roman is done, I struggled with this chapter for two weeks. Moments of weakness had Roman surviving, I love his character and wanted him to persist through everything but in the end, I realized his purpose in the story was finished. I knew that and I had two choices to make.**

 **Save his life and reduce him to a stunted role that would do an injustice to the character I believe Roman to be, or commit to his death and allow my planned story to continue as I originally intended.**

 **I don't know if I made the right choice in the end, I like to think I did but it really comes down to how the readers feel, some of you love the character as much as I do and I might lose your interest forever with this simple chapter or I could have piqued your interest with the death of a Major character.**

 **Only time will tell I guess.**

 **Some other things happened in this chapter, namely Ozpin readying himself.**

 **I have had a few of you asking when Jaune and Yang will be returning, specifically Jaune and all I can say is be patient.**

 **The are my main characters but they aren't the only characters that matter.**

* * *

 _Of course, the VIP was a Schnee it's flipping Atlas, everyone here thinks there something special but even they treat the Schnee's special._ Roman spun his head around to look that the unconscious figure in the back of his car. _And its the god damn miniature Ice Queen._

 _This isn't how this happened, then again I wasn't even in Atlas, I only heard about this through the grape vine during time dealing with the Fang in Vale when I worked for the Bitch._ Slowing his vehicle to a stop he patiently waited for the traffic light to change so he could continue his inconspicuous escape.

 _The Fang fucked this up when they did it by themselves, their person inside the Schnee mansion got cold feet and the whole thing fell apart without her getting their target out of the mansion. I fucked this up by being here and accepting the job and now I have to figure out some way to fix this without getting myself killed._ The light shifted colors and Roman continued his quiet evening drive wondering idly how long his passenger was supposed to be unconscious for, he didn't even know if it was drugs or a physical blow that made her this way, he assumed drugs as he was fairly confident she had her aura unlocked which would have resulted in her Aura actively forcing her to regain consciousness, whereas drugs, Aura couldn't do anything against that, at least not in any sort of efficient manner

 _So how do I unfuck this? Neo is handling the Fang side of the problem._ It might have been petty but Roman smiled at the thought of his accomplice killing her way through several dozen Faunus terrorists. _Really this is their fault, they simply need to pay the price, hell if I didn't have to babysit you until I figure a way out of this mess I would be right beside my little killer happily helping her._

Silently a light down the street strafed across the road several times before locking onto the street before traveling his way, he didn't panic instead he simply kept driving, no sirens had been raised yet and likely wouldn't unless the Schnee Dust Company Security forces proved unsuccessful in their search.

"You know Ice Queen, out of your group of friends I don't think the two of use ever interacted one on one. Red, Ruby, I dealt with her too many times to count, both before and after I lost my voice, she was a pain in my ass the entire time, hero complex, that one wanted to save the world, in the end she couldn't though, that world was lost, probably somewhat my fault but I'm trying to do better this time. The Bitch behind everything will get whats coming to her. Who else was there... oh right, The Kitty Cat, Blake I think. You know I'm not sure I ever got her name, the Terrorist turned vigilante, worthy goal now that I have had a lifetime to reflect on my actions, I won't be getting in her way this time, hell if I get the chance I might even get rid of the red haired idiot that stalks her, though I might leave that for Blondie." Roman slowed his car to a crawl before turning into a parking garage to a rather fancy upscale hotel that he had been living in for the past few weeks.

Unceremoniously he hauled Weiss out of the passenger seat of his car and threw her over his shoulder and began to walk towards the underground entrance that would take him towards the reception desk of the Hotel.

"Blondie, well the female Blonde anyways, I think she would enjoy having a second go at caving in Adam's skull, she enjoyed it so much the first time, I hadn't seen the results myself but even in my wretched world the news of the event spread rapidly, you might think I might have felt bad for the Faunus since I was at the time actively trying to kill the ones who killed him but no, guy was a creep, the kind of one that would happily kill a fifteen year old girl for simply being the daughter of a racist, and I'll admit it, one of the worst people humanity has ever produced, but still that isn't your fault. We might have never interacted one on one but I did see what you accomplished on your own, you're better than your father, your better than a fair amount of humanity and I don't want this experience changing that."

It was a late hour and only one person, an elderly gentleman watched the reception desk Roman walked up to him purposefully.

"Monsieur Rosewick, I did not know you were out this evening, has your young Miss had a rough night?"

"I do apologize for not informing the front desk of my coming's and goings this evening Gerard, I was called away quite urgently to attend to a matter earlier."

"I understand completely and fear not it is not required of you to check in and out with the desk it is just you so infrequently leave that the times you do seem noteworthy is all."

Roman smiled, something about the elderly receptionist had caused Roman to like him immediately even extending his stay here longer than necessary instead of changing residences every few weeks. Looking at the small slightly portly man Roman was struck upon an idea.

"Gerard, I have a slight dilemma on my hands and I was wondering if you might be able to help."

"Are you speaking of Ms. Politan? Is she unwell does she require a doctor?"

Roman paused for a moment confused until realizing that Gerard was mistaking the diminutive form casually slung over his shoulder to be his partner Neo. "No, Gerard, Neo is fine she actually is still out for the evening, but this young lady is in need of assistance I do believe a doctor might be in order as she has been given some form of sedative."

"Monsieur Rosewick you truly are a gentleman, but should you not have brought her to a hospital if that were the case?"

With a sigh, Roman looked directly at Gerard.

"Gerard, you will not see me again after this conversation, so I'm going to be candid with you as I feel like I can trust you. Please don't make me regret that."

"I will try my best sir."

"First off I am not Nolan Rosewick. I am Roman Torchwick." Roman paused as the name registered with the other man and a brief look of hesitation crossed his face as he recognized the name of one of the most wanted people on Remnant. "Good you recognize my name, now you will understand the severity of the situation I am in."

A faint nod is all he received from Gerard.

"The Woman on my should is Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company." Roman frowned as Gerard took a half step back from the counter the shock of the situation causing his hesitant expression become one closer to fear, the Schnee name had the effect in Atlas.

"Gerard please try to compose yourself I'm going out on a limb here by trusting you and I would prefer it if you did nothing rash."

Another faint nod was his reply and to Gerard's credit, he did move back to his original position.

"Good now here is my problem, I was contacted by an organization to be a middle man in an arrangement to kidnap Ms. Schnee. Now before you ask I will tell you if I knew the target was a Schnee we would not be in this situation as I would have simply turned down this job, but I am currently past the point of no return and I am looking for an out that ends up with Ms. Schnee returned home safely and my neck remaining connected to my head."

"I am just a simple receptionist how can I help you." Gerard felt light headed at this situation but kept his focus.

"I will be leaving tonight, right after I deposit Weiss in my room and then I will disappear. You are going to find some way to contact the Schnee Dust Company as soon as I leave this lobby, feel free to expose me in any way you see fit or acceptable." With that Roman turned to leave. and stepped quietly into the elevator and pulling a key from his pocket inserted it into the top of the elevator and allowed the lift to carry him all the way to the penthouse.

The elevator cracked open and in the middle of the room stood a freshly showered and changed Neopolitan who shot him a concerned look when she noticed the figure on his shoulder.

"Plan's in motion Neo, grab everything that we need we are leaving for good." Roman watched as Neo nodded silently and went to pack away a few belongings. He on the other hand gently set Weiss Schnee on an empty sofa and pulled a blanket over her and stuck a soft pillow under her head and with a smile turned as Neo re-entered the room, both stepped into the elevator, Roman already formulating a plan on how they would leave Atlas and sneak into Vale to wait for Cinder's call.

* * *

 **Two day's later.  
**

* * *

Roman stared at Winter Schnee a mixture of concern and annoyance from him matched by one of confusion and Anger coming from her.

No news had been good news for two days as Roman and Neo traveled across Atlas to one of a handful of places Roman knew he could discretely leave Atlas. No news also meant he had no idea what sort of reaction he should be expecting if they were caught. He didn't intend to get caught but no one usually does.

The fact that he had been caught in a sense intrigued him, the reaction was unexpected in his mind but he deduced that the only reason it intrigued him was it wasn't an army or SDC Droids come to capture or kill him it was a single individual.

"Why?"

"Why, what? I'm sorry Winter you are going to be more specific than a simple why if you want me to spill."

"Why did you save my sister instead of handing her over to those monsters."

"Simple. She doesn't deserve to suffer because of the action of another."

"Then why did you accept the job in the first place."

"Didn't know who the target was, I didn't even know who I was working for until the night of the job, when I found out it was Weiss Schnee being kidnapped by the Fang and I was their patsy if things went wrong, well I think you have seen the results of how well that worked for them." A simple eye movement was all that betrayed Winter, Roman saw it and understood, Winter had discovered the remains of what Neo had done to the Faunus who Roman was supposed to deliver Weiss too, Roman didn't have to imagine hard on how gruesome the scene might have been, Neo could get a little overzealous.

"So what was your plan then escape from Atlas and pretend this never happened?"

"Is it so hard to believe that that is exactly what I want to happen?"

"...no, it isn't. My Father will never stop hunting you though, he has the security footage from the hotel, Atlas Military has been notified about your involvement and SDC forces will have standing orders to deal with you in the future."

"Your old man is totally ignoring the facts that I'm responsible for Weiss not being hurt right?"

"He doesn't care, to him your simple someone who has offended his family and you will be dealt with accordingly."

"I suppose that get to the meat of this meeting then doesn't it. What are you going to do Winter? Will you stand in my way and force me to fight you or will you stand aside and let me leave."

"I shouldn't let you leave and I shouldn't do you any favor's, you're a criminal for more than being a part of my sister's kidnapping, but at the same time you're also the reason I still have a sister."

"Quite the dilemma your facing, how about this, I escape and live another day and you go home and help your sister become stronger and you know, maybe curb some of that racism out of her before it really gets ingrained into her by her father."

* * *

 **Hour's later**

* * *

Roman stared at his Scroll in confusion, Winter had let him go, no fight happened, nothing, she simply gave him a scroll number and turned and left with a bizarre smile on her face.

He didn't know what to make of the number yet he felt inclined to connect it to an emergency call button on his scroll.

* * *

 **And there you have it.**

 **Roman's last hurrah in the story.**

 **This also explain's Winter's Debt to the man and Weiss's more friendly attitude towards Faunus in general as Winter went ahead and helped counter her father's racism with more rational lessons.**

 **Farewell Roman I will miss writing you.**


	37. Chapter 37

"I did it I'm free! / _I did it I won!"_

A fiery pain shot through its form eliciting a shriek that would echo for miles.

"What was that? / _What was that?"_

The figured was shrouded in darkness, a crushing weight pressed in on it from every direction, something deep down a fear at the situation as it comprehended on some level that it was buried alive.

"This is nothing, a mere inconvenience. / _Freedom must escape!"_

The figures concentration slipped and this time the fiery pain that coursed through its form was not hot and burning, instead, it felt terribly cold, fighting past the pain inside itself it pulled forth it's power and with an act of supreme concentration and willpower unleashed itself on the debris that was covering itself.

A lance of energy flowed wildly from itself, the debris that rested in the path of the shaft of energy wasn't flung wildly away rather it simply ceased to be after being in contact with the energy.

The figure in the hole stared into the open sky in confusion a sheen of sweat covered its entire body from the unexpected exertion, panting heavily it reached up with an arm and pulled itself up the smooth side of the hole.

"That was exhausting, I might have won and the power is formidable but it is far too taxing. / _What is this sensation, I feel so weak, must replenish!"_

A shriek of pain again, the form didn't understand the source, the pain felt like it was coming from within itself yet also it felt like it was being assailed by an outside source as well.

The figure did its best to ignore the pain, it would diminish entirely and then flare up in an instant so it choose to ignore it while it could. From where the figure stood atop the collapsed remains of a cave it vaguely remembered inhabiting the memory of its time spent inside and it's recent escape seemed to fade from its memory even as it tried to focus on the details. Shaking its head trying to clear away a memory it couldn't focus on it instead looked over the surrounding area trying to understand what had happened. Its location stood at the center of a forest fire that burned away in the distance, the fire had spread so rapidly that it couldn't make out the edge of the blaze instead it was just a blurred sheen of heat that obscured its vision.

It was tired, the effort of summoning its power had started the wave of fatigue but the rest it was taking atop the cave was not letting itself recuperate, instead, the figure grew more exhausted by the simple action of surveying its surroundings.

"Where is the Bullhead, all the food was on it. / _Sustenance, must consume something, anything!"_

Pain lanced through its form though this time the pain felt less pronounced, ignoring the change the form began to move in a direction it remembered through a vague memory, the Bullhead it had thought of was something it both remembered and yet didn't remember it only knew the name as it was attached to where it remembered there being food.

The figure climbed down from the rocks carefully picking out its path as it sought to reach the ground, fatigue threatened to overwhelm the figure as finally reached the burnt and hardened ground that felt oddly cool to the soles of its feet. The air was assuredly warm and stifling to breathe yet the figure felt chilled when it touched the ground.

'Had the rocks been cold? / _What is this sensation.'_

The figure stepped away from the rocks and reached toward them in unison, as this action took place a pain lanced through the figure that forced the figure to spasm violently another wave of energy was unleashed from the now prone form.

The figure laid on the hard ground gasping for breath and eyes darting wildly around itself for a moment before clumsily getting back to its feet, It's interest in both the ground and rocks wholly forgotten as it turned with a purpose and moved in the direction it remembered it would find sustenance.

With its goal focused and clear in the figures mind in lurched forward at a bizarre speed. A part of it felt like it was moving too fast yet it also felt at the same time to be moving woefully slow. The figure lost interest in its speed much like it lost interest in anything else that wasn't directly related to finding sustenance.

Arriving at the location it remembered it knew instinctively that the sustenance was gone, the container the 'Bullhead' whatever that was was missing.

It felt within itself a surge of power unlike either that had come before it, this one did not come with a fierce pain or a shriek of rage that it would be unable to contain, this time the power tugged at itself wanting to escape its container but the container, the figure, refused to allow it, sensing that if this power was released that it might be the end of itself, it was already so weak that it wasn't sure it could handle another release.

The figure moved, the action caused the power to diminish, it was still there bordering on the edge of its control but the simple act of moving helped to calm the power.

The figure was drenched in sweat as well as coated with a layer of black filth as it ambled with a simple purpose across the destroyed landscape, the simple need to find sustenance driving itself.

It had no comprehension of time passing it simply traveled, it's speed becoming wildly inconsistent as it would move with frightening speed for short periods followed by periods of frustrating slow as it's body seemed to rebel against the action and its motions would become jarring and awkward.

It had no idea how far it traveled all it knew was the fatigue it suffered and the desire to consume.

In the distance from itself it spotted motion, a shape, it flew.

"The Bullhead! / _Sustenance!"_

The energy it had held back for so long as it traveled flowed forth in no controllable manner, a shriek of pain escaped its lips as the flying machine traveled further away.

The figure fell forward it's energy all but sapped completely, the expulsion of energy having taken its toll and rendered its unwilling user near death as it struggled back to its feet painfully gasping for breath.

Even on the verge of succumbing to its exhaustion, the figure looked with blurry eyes over the landscape looking for anything that might provide some relief from the exhaustion. It spotted something near the place when the flying craft departed, it didn't match the burned landscape, with a monumental effort the figure traveled the remaining distance between itself and the deformation in the landscape.

Breathing heavily it reached the exterior of the odd structure, its mind felt a familiarity with the structure/object but it felt wrong like the shape was off from its memory something it couldn't place.

Frustrated with the shape of the deformation in the landscape the figure lashed out it's exhausted form, striking the structure, a metallic tearing sound accompanied the strike and a hole appeared.

The hole caused a memory to return as it remembered something, the memory was brief but it had another image of the flying craft, a Bullhead. The memory vanished as from inside the figure smelt sustenance, pulling its form through the hole it began to tear its way through the foodstuff's contained within the structure.

* * *

Qrow watched in disbelief as an Atlesian Bullhead streaked away from the source of energy he had just witnessed moments earlier, he literally couldn't believe his luck.

Checking his scroll one last time he watched quite happily as Winters indicator moved further and further away from not only himself but the mystery light also.

Qrow stood and watched the direction the light had erupted from, he considered getting closer but instincts trained from a lifetime of hunter work as well as being an Agent of Ozpin's warned him from approaching the location he spotted the light.

Qrow was at an impasse of what to do, both the sound and light spoke of a powerful entity, one that he had no personal desire to face yet he also knew his obligation. Ozpin was waiting for a report and him standing around admiring the torched scenery was not going to cut it and he knew that.

' _By air or by land... God's both those options suck, if that thing attacks while I'm in the air I'm as good as dead but Grimm don't commonly attack animals, but also, what has been common about this past week._ Qrow began to move forward slowly gripping his blade tightly behind his back but letting it remained sheathed and collapsed not wanting to appear outright hostile, the more intelligent Grimm didn't always attack on sight, in some cases they would wait for a weapon to be revealed or an action to be taken so keeping his blade concealed seemed prudent to him currently.

Qrow picked his way carefully across the fire ravaged terrain, ducking under collapsed trees and gradually closing the miles between himself and the source of the noise which had been frightening silent ever since that first outburst he had heard.

Eventually, he was close enough to spot the wreckage of a crashed Bullhead, the cockpit twisted under the frame of the bulk of the craft, along the side of the vessel a huge tear was present, ripped open from the outside.

Something was missing, he wasn't exactly sure when it had happened but the fear he had approaching this area had all but vanished in the time it took him to cross the miles on foot, with him noticing the fear was gone he also began to pick up other noises return to the area, the creak of metal scraping against itself or the burnt twigs under his feet finally began to make noticeable noise no longer muted and dulled by the overbearing presence he had felt.

Unsure of what to make of the sudden change in atmosphere he closed in closer to the crashed Bullhead expecting at every moment for his suspicions to be true and a trap to be sprung, even now when he stood quietly on the twisted metal from of the Bullhead staring into the hold through the jagged tear in the frame nothing lashed out intent on ending his life.

With a sigh and shift of his blade, Qrow stepped into the hold and scanned the area with the light from his scroll.

 _Empty._ Stepping deeper inside his foot brushed up against something that made a small crinkle noise. _A half eaten energy bar, looks like something just bit through the wrapper to get at what was inside._ Qrow swung his light source low taking care to carefully look at the refuse on the floor around him.

Food containers and wrapper's littered the floor, what he originally mistook for the spilled contents of the cargo hold he now realized the crates had been opened after the crash and someone had consumed if sloppily, the entire contents of the bullhead. Containers that would last an active traveling Huntsman weeks had been torn open recently and the contents consumed in the few hours it had taken him to cross the terrain.

Aside from the empty food packages the hold was empty, no clue was left for him to latch onto as he gave up and stepped out of the craft and scanned the terrain in every direction even taking to his avian form throwing aside the risk it put to himself and climbed high into the air searching to find an answer to the consumed food but whatever had raided the hold of the crashed ship was long gone, resigning himself he returned to the ground and pulled out his scroll.

* * *

Ozpin's feet hit the hardened burnt ground lightly as he approached the crashed bullhead, Qrow sat comfortably atop the twisted wreckage of the machine casually scanning the horizon for any threat, Ozpin knew that action was entirely out of habit and not really because Qrow believed there to be any threat.

The landscape and the atmosphere around the crash just didn't feel like they were in danger, occasionally a Huntsman of their years might be proven wrong and would be attacked while feeling completely comfortable with their surroundings but he felt certain that was not the case right now.

Behind him came a team Dr. Oobleck put together, each carrying a powerful light source and with a degree of organization not expected of the hastily cobbled together team the interior of the crashed Bullhead was lit up in moments.

Ozpin watched with a bit of envy as two of the team members hastily climbed on top of the wreckage allowing Qrow a break as he descended to stand beside himself.

"Ya really didn't need to come all this way Oz, there is nothing here anymore, whatever made that horrible noise and gave me that light show is long gone."

"Perhaps but I'm here nonetheless." Ozpin stepped forward and gently ran his hand along the tear in the side of the bullhead, careful to keep his hands away from the sharper pieces of metal as he carefully inspected the length of the seam eventually backtracking and stopping at a point near the middle of the tear. Leaning in close he inspected what appeared to be a fairly clear imprint of what appeared to be a hand pushed deep into the metal shell of the craft. Calling it a hand felt like a loose approximation of what it was.

The imprint had only four digits two long pointing ones and what appeared to be a thumb like digit on opposite sides of the hand, a quick click of his Scroll and Ozpin had a clear picture of the weird imprint. Ozpin stood to find qrow standing closely behind him. "You deal with Salem's minions more personally than I do, do you recognize this type of imprint from anything you have fought?" Ozpin showed him both the image on the scroll as well as the indent in the metal.

"Can't say I ever clearly looked at their hands much Oz but no, I'm fairly certain I never fought anything with an imprint like that."

"Curious. How about we step inside, see if we can find anything with better lighting." Ozpin didn't wait for his companion's reply and was already ducking through the hole in the craft, he heard Qrow following suit.

The Hold was strewn with empty containers and wrappers with only a few scant morels of food actually being present, whatever consumed the contents might now have had the best etiquette as far as Ozpin could tell but it didn't waste food, the largest piece of unconsumed food was the half of an energy bar that Qrow had originally discovered when he searched the crash site hours earlier.

Ozpin picked through the wrappers and ruined crates meticulously for long minutes trying to find another hint to the identity of what did this. Grimm consumed everything, packaging wouldn't have been purposefully removed like it was in this instance and the hold would be a mess of spilt foods if that were also the case as they also weren't the cleanest of eaters, food would be strewn everywhere and there would likely be puddles of saliva as well, the hold was clear of both those indicators and really anything else, whatever had consumed the food had done so with efficiency as well as leaving no trace of itself, the latter was likely unintentional as it had left a clear imprint on the exterior of the Bullhead.

"What are your thought's Qrow?"

"Honestly Oz I don't know in this case. Whatever that creature was it had me scared from miles away. That aside what was Winter doing out here today to discover it anyway?"

"Taking care of a personal debt nothing more, though I feel like a source of answers we might have had is lost to us."

"You know I hate your riddles right Oz?"

* * *

The figure still hungered but for what it wasn't sure, it had fed and with the food came a relief from the fatigue and exhaustion. Part of itself felt the relief was too sudden but the thought slipped through its mind too quickly to cause itself any concern.

Once it had emptied the hold of everything it had left in search of the something it was missing, through its mind images would flash that seemed important but it could not discern the import behind the images, gradually some of the images stopped appearing altogether, the first to disappear was a young male with grey hair, second to that was a young woman with dark skin. Its mind fought to retain the second image, something about it was import to itself but as much as it fought to keep the image and remember it, it finally slipped away with the first.

The figure traveled its speed greater than it was before, easily leaving the fire ravaged landscape and passing through the flames themselves to end up underneath a canopy of leaves that was a mixture of red and green, two different distinct type of foliage blending together to be one forest.

As it traveled more images flitted through its mind, the next was an image of a man with bright hair and a black hat.

The figure collapsed in pain, as its mind rebelled at the image, a portion remembered the man as someone to trust, the trust was matched with feelings of a steadfast dependability. The other portion of its mind looked at the man and held no trust, it felt cautious like it had questions for the figure in the mental image, also a sense of loss not of itself but a loss of a family member. The figure prone on the ground writhed in pain gradually winning against the effects and regaining its feet, the image of the man persisted long after as a mind split in its decision over it held it in place but gradually the image faded away like the others before it.

The process repeated itself for hours as the figure traveled further and further images of people or places it felt like it knew slipped from its mind until only a handful remained, things that were too important to forget even if the figure didn't know the significance of them anymore.

Four images remained, the first was a White tower, elegant in design or so the mind thought as the image hovered inside its mind, the Tower was important but why was it important, was it important to itself in some way it didn't understand.

The tower was a mystery to itself and try as it might it could not forget the image, it was important enough to remember so it was remembered.

The next image was of a man, one it felt far away from, the man elicited a reaction of desire, it wanted something from this man, it wasn't certain what it desired, he had something it wanted.

Next was a building, a landscape of black with a shattered moon hanging overhead it remembered this place as a refuge and a home a feeling of yearning came as it remembered this structure.

Last was another person a figure of great power, the figure and the building from the previous image seemed to co-inside within its mind, a calm feeling overcame itself as its mind remained locked on the figure of power, the image of the figure was stronger than all the remaining images combined.

Unbeknownst to the mind the body of the figure turned and began to travel with an unmatchable speed, the image of it's Queen guiding its path home.

* * *

 **Another one done.**

 **So another villain chapter, in a sense anyway.**

 **Cinder or what's left of her anyway has been growing on me over time, pretty sure the reason is partly because of how much I have needed to change her to fit within the confines of my story.**

 **That being said whats wrong with her now!**

 **Can't I just leave her alone to let her concoct her devious and masterful plans, No, no I cannot!**

 **Anyways was a fun chapter to write hope you all enjoy it but I'm going to go relax from this chapter and have myself some fun writing The Scoundrel.**


	38. Chapter 38

The Bullhead touched down softly on one of the many landing pads around Beacon. Winter paused for a long minute holding her breath, trying to come up with any story that would sound possible to her superiors as to why she was out in Forever Fall and why she had the corpse of a globally wanted criminal in her ships hold at the moment.

Standing from her pilot's seat she divested herself of most of her equipment only keeping her weapon and dust handy as she opened the hatch to the cargo area not really certain what to expect.

What she saw made her need to find a reason for being in the forest even more difficult as the body of Roman Torchwick was missing as well as his accomplice.

* * *

Neo staggered under the weight of Roman's body as she struggled to concentrate to use her Semblance to transport the two of them somewhere safe.

She didn't know what constituted as safe right now so she was surprised when she ended up standing outside a small residence on the edge of the entertainment district. She had been here only once in her entire time in Vale and she hadn't even been let inside, Roman had entered for only a few minutes on that single visit before taking up residence in one of their multiple hideouts throughout the city.

Her curiosity had gotten the better of her and she had spent her free time trying to figure out who lived at the small residence and why Roman had made a stop there before anywhere else and the answer had been simple.

Hei Xiong or 'Junior' as most knew him owned the property, he rarely visited the property and when he did he never stayed for long which to her peaked her interest further simply because it made the building interesting, what did Junior used it for and why was it only visited randomly, she never found the time to break in and really doing so would have only hurt whatever arrangement Roman had worked out with the man so she left the building alone.

Now she stood in front of it wondering why exactly she had come here exactly, she had dozens of places she could have vanished too but they were all known locations, if she truly wanted to hide from people she needed somewhere no one would find her and that she could count on being empty at least for the time being.

A flash of light and she stood in the entryway, letting Roman's body gently slide to the ground she tried the doorknob expecting resistance, surprisingly the door was not locked.

She quickly swung the door open and dragged Roman inside, laying his form on an open patch of the floor as she moved to inspect the surroundings.

The building was clean and well maintained was her immediate impression, no dust collected on surfaces and nothing visibly looked to be in a state of disrepair, moving past the entrance she immediately stepped into the greater bulk of the building, a large open room dominated the small residence. Kitchen, dining room, and living area all occupied the same room with a single doorway tucked into a corner led into what appeared to be a bathroom, a staircase led up to a small, loft-like area, that once inspected was a simple bedroom that much like the rest of the building was clean and ordered but otherwise unoccupied.

The place felt safe and that was good enough for her, she returned to where she had left Roman's body and with a quick flash had his body upstairs on the bed.

She didn't understand why she was doing any of this, she knew he was dead, she should be out there taking revenge on those she could reach, and she intended to, nothing would stand in her way of dealing with those she was capable of dealing with and then it came to Cinder.

She was the one responsible for everything that had happened, of that Neo was certain but Neo was certain of one other thing, she alone was not a match for Cinder. Roman had been right on that front, neither could take her alone and she doubted even the two of them could have matched her.

Neo sat for long hours staring at her deceased friend and mentor, she tried to focus on thinking of a way to deal with Cinder but everything hinged on a difference in power, and as far as she knew Cinder was untouchable in that department so as she sat there planning quietly every plan fell apart in her mind.

Long after the sun had left the sky for the day and the shattered moon had hung for long hours did a noise invade her silent vigil of friend and mentor's body.

A faint sound reached her ears of the front door to the building being opened and closed of silent well-oiled hinges, Neo crept to the edge of the loft and looked down on the entryway and waited for the intruder to show themselves.

Silence reigned for a long minute before a held breath being released announced that the person in the entryway was prepared to move forward into the building, with a few quick strides made his way inside and without any hesitation looked towards the loft right where Neo stood, watching the entrance.

Neo hopped the railing and landed hard in front of the man who intruded on her moment, eye's flashing dangerously as she closed the distance.

"I'm not here for you or him Neo, I'm here to offer my condolences and offer you any assistance you might need, both those come as offer's of friendship and not any obligation I may have held to him." Junior's eyes flashed towards the loft looking as remorseful as they could, after years of criminal life it was surprising that he could even remember what that emotion was.

Neo paused, Juniors expression halting her anger but not dissipating it. quickly she pulled out her scroll and began to type away.

'How do you know Roman is dead?'

"Camera's" Junior kept his gaze level and steady not wanting to risk Neo's ire, as even on good days she was intimidating but right now his blood ran cold simply looking at her.

'Turn them off.'

Junior pulled out his scroll and showed her with a quick tap of a screen the three camera's that watched the entire residence winked off.

'What is this place.'

"A house?" Junior wasn't sure exactly how to respond to that question, and tried not to panic when Neo's eyes narrowed visibly angry with his casual response. "Roman's house, he had me buy it for him before he even arrived in Vale, paid me up front the day he arrived and had been paying me ever since to make sure its clean." Junior relaxed slightly as Neo's gaze went from him to the interior of the building looking it over with an appraising eye.

'What was the purpose of this place?'

"I don't know, he paid me to keep it clean personally and to make sure no one messed with the place, hence the camera's."

Neo turned from Junior leaving him to his own devices as she quickly rifled through cupboards and drawers trying to find anything that contradicted his story in any way. The fridge was empty but the cupboards were stocked with an assortment of foodstuff that had a considerable shelf life and when she moved to the dressers and closet she discovered multiple sets of clothing that would fit either Roman or herself. The styles were not what either of them currently wore but that meant nothing, the sign's were everywhere now that she looked through the building that Roman had set up this building as some final sort of safehouse.

"Neo, what happened?" Junior didn't want to draw Neo's ire but curiosity got the better of him.

'Job went bad, Roman paid for it.'

Junior looked around the building in an uncertainty of what exactly to do now.

'Can I trust you to take care of Roman for me?'

"Yes, definitely. I can have everything arranged in a matter of hours."

'Make it a day, I have some things I need to take care of.' Neo's expression sharpened, grief mixed with anger and frustration had slowly shifted to a much more sinister look as her mind rapidly began to form the outline of a plan.

* * *

"So Roman Torchwick is dead and his body is missing?"

"Yes, Headmaster."

"Also Roman Torchwicks accomplice, Neopolitan, is also missing?"

"Yes, Headmaster."

Winter stood in Ozpin's office, the hour incredibly late but she had waited patiently for him to return so that she could give her entire report immediately, even going into detail of the events that had happened in Atlas and why she felt she owed the criminal a favor.

"Very well, thank you for your thorough report Winter, now it is quite late and we both have jobs to perform in the morning and I know Amber will be expecting your presence at combat lessons, she seems quite keen on the idea of using your Semblance to instruct the students on how to deal with more challenging and intelligent Grimm." Ozpin turned from the desk intent on retiring for the evening a great yawn accentuating this.

"Headmaster, shouldn't I be issued some punishment for my actions?" Winter stared at the Beacon Headmaster with confusion as he had made his way around the desk, intent on following through with his plan to retire for the evening.

"Do you feel you should be punished for what you did today?" Ozpin didn't stop in his path towards leaving the office but he did slow himself.

"What do you mean, I just admitted to aiding a criminal's escape from Atlas and said criminal moved to your kingdom and by all rights formed a criminal organization here shortly thereafter."

"You didn't really answer my question. Do you feel like you should be punished?"

Winter paused at the question this time. _It doesn't matter if I believe I did anything wrong or not, my actions speak for themselves._ "I have no say on the matter but protocol would dictate I receive some form of reprimand or punishment not only for my actions but also for withholding information."

Ozpin stopped just short of the elevator and turned, his mind crying desperately for sleep but understanding that Winter was not likely to drop this subject like he hoped she would, he made a mental note to have any other meetings with Winter pushed to the early morning. "Ms. Schnee you will find that those of us here in Vale differ greatly from the norm when it comes to issues such as these, from your own perspective and likely the perspectives of a great many others you are right, you would be expected to receive some form of punishment. I would be a hypocrite if I punished you though as would almost every member of the Beacon staff has done something similar, some to an even greater degree. So no, there will be no punishment issued for this."

Winter frowned at Ozpin's response, she was unaccustomed to such cavalier behaviour, she had been raised in the Schnee household and then transitioned to the Atlas military as soon as she could freely do so, both her family and the organization would not have allowed such a revelation to go unpunished, she couldn't decide which would have given the worst punishment, no that wasn't true, her father would have had the worst punishment that was if he still had any control over herself, she had made that clear the day she joined the military. "I am unfamiliar with this form of order you seem to have instilled here at Beacon but I will differ to your judgment on this matter."

Ozpin stared at his companion and with a grateful shake of his head was glad the meeting was finally over as he stepped into the elevator and was joined by Winter, he left her after only a short ride down as he was one of the few individuals who had a permanent residence inside the tower.

* * *

Neo had wasted no time after leaving Junior to take care of Roman's body, in the few hours since leaving she had left a string of murders behind her, none of the new White Fang troops that had been recruited had had anything useful to tell her and even if they had it wouldn't have saved their lives.

She was out for blood tonight and Emerald and Mercury were at the top of that list, finding them hadn't been as simple as she hoped it would be, she knew Mercury had been missing since shortly after the battle a week ago and Emerald was stuck following around the Faunus 'Banesaw' as he impersonated Adam Taurus while rebuilding the terrorist organization.

She had already been to all the major Fang hideouts and aside from a handful of now dead Faunus her hunt had been proving unsuccessful until the last hideout, she had overheard a conversation about a recruitment gathering, 'Banesaw' was using the recent tragedy to expand his ranks rapidly and tonight a massive gathering of disenfranchised Faunus was about to happen.

She had dispatched the two Faunus with quiet ease and then made her way across to the City to the location they had spoken of, deep in the Industrial center of the city in a massive warehouse a gathering was underway.

While her anger was burning in her she wasn't going to recklessly barge into this gathering, she had a mission and that didn't involve getting mauled by a couple hundred of Faunus as she broke into the Rally and killed its leader, or more specifically exposing its leader as someone who was simply trying to fill the role.

Sneaking inside was a simple feat, the security was lax to the point of being nonexistent as the White Fang hadn't discovered any of its followers she had murdered yet at the other hideouts so no one was expecting anything to happen at this gathering.

Climbing through the rafters as her eyes keenly scanned the floor below looking carefully to find her target. Emerald had to be here it was just a matter of finding her among the crowd, which was proving to be particularly challenging as the crowd continued to grow in numbers.

Eventually, the crowd settled into place and a Faunus she recognized took the stage. The fake Adam Taurus took the stage and started immediately into his rhetoric of equality and oppression and so on an so forth, Neo had tuned him out immediately redoubling her efforts to find Emerald.

She didn't know exactly how her targets Semblance worked but guessed two things, one she needed to be able to see what she was changing and two and this one was more of a guess than anything, that it required an intense degree of focus at least for a crowd this large.

Neo scanned the crowd looking for anyone out of place, anyone who didn't seem inclined to cheer with the others around them she would scrutinize, making mental note of there appearance, as the rally began to wind down and the crowd slowly began to disperse Neo's eyes focused on three individuals who had a strong chance of being her target.

All three wore heavily concealing clothing and had not participated in the cheering at all, eye's flitting between the three she watched as two of them slowly made their way towards the exit of the building together, Neo disregarded them pretty quickly as they neared the exit, 'Banesaw' still appeared to be Adam visually and the pair leaving would have already lost sight of the man which left only one other possibility, Neo quickly found her third choice and knew she had found Emerald.

She had barely moved from her spot after the rally had ended, maybe only a dozen feet or so but clearly keeping her target in her line of sight, moving as he moved.

Neo smiled knowing she had found her first target and couldn't ask for a better opportunity, she was distracted and the constant use of her Semblance had probably drained her Aura a significant amount.

With a jerk of her wrist, the hidden blade inside her parasol appeared and Neo readied herself to teleport and strike, intent on killing Emerald in a single action before she could employ her Semblance defensively.

With a flash of White, she vanished from the rafters appearing right in front of her target, wanting her to see, if only briefly the one who was about to kill her.

Parasol flashing forward it struck cleanly, no Aura ready to prevent the blow. Neo drew her weapon back, the scattered crowd around her had failed to react to her appearance yet and Neo savored the expression on Emerald's face, confusion and shock were her only readable expressions before they were replaced with pain and fear as the damage from the wound became apparent.

Neo watched as Emerald tried to breathe as her throat and lungs began to fill with blood, she could have made Emerald's death painless but she wanted those who sided with Cinder to suffer so she had struck purposefully.

When she found Roman in the Bullhead he had been visibly unwounded aside from a few scrapes and bruises from the crash, it wasn't until she had stolen away his body while they rode Winters Bullhead that she found out what had been the result of his death, he had bled out internally.

While she couldn't reliably replicate the effect on others she could make them choke on their own blood and she smiled wickedly as Emerald sputtered and coughed trying to desperately breathe as she collapsed to the floor spasming wildly.

Those who remained in the Warehouse slowly began to react to the scene. The first and quickest was the one who formerly looked to be Adam Taurus, now though he stood much taller and eyes glared with undisguised hatred toward her as he barked savage orders for his men who reacted slowly, not recognizing the face or voice.

Sluggishly the White Fang extremists under the command of Banesaw moved towards her position, some intent on attacking and distracting her from the way they moved, as a few moved around her intent on reaching the writhing, spasming form behind her. With a smile that conveyed a sinister viciousness that could not be misread by anyone Neo drove her blade into Emerald's chest and in an instant ended her life.

In the back of her mind, Neo bemoaned the fact that she could not have left her to suffer longer but she knew that the fight that was about to happen would distract her from her revenge and while she doubted Emerald was capable of being saved she chose to take no risks. Flashing away from the corpse Neo set to work turning anyone who stood against her in the warehouse into corpse, those who fled she let go, not for any real reason simply because they weren't important, 'Banesaw' was and she was cutting a brutal swath through the minions the large Faunus threw at her.

None were skilled enough to even slow her down and for the most part, they lacked any Aura to defend themselves, in short order a bloody path of corpses lay behind her as she stood in front of the large Faunus her eyes glinted with a cold light as the Faunus took a step back clearly afraid of her.

Neo watched as 'Banesaw's' eyes darted around the warehouse trying to make sense of why she was doing this, she could tell by the way his eye's kept looking far behind her that he was at a loss for a reason as he knew he wasn't important to Cinder's plans but Emerald certainly was and she had killed her first. Slowly Neo saw the realization dawn in the large Faunus that Neo was acting on no ones order's apart from her own.

"Well then, come on then you little freak!" With a guttural Roar, Banesaw swung hard to attack putting everything he had into the swing that connected with empty air.

Neo stood behind the Large Faunus inspecting her blade for a moment before turning an smiling at her handiwork, and also the pathetic Aura control the Faunus apparently had as he was likely full on Aura still but was still bleeding quite heavily from multiple blows, the worst being his Achilles tendons being severed, forcing the large man to remain on his knees, with a smile that held no mirth Neo closed in again.

* * *

Two shrouded figures stood outside the warehouse listening to the muted fight that was happening inside, both unsure how to react to the conflict they had witnessed.

Sun was wrapped heavily in bandages and was breathing awkwardly from the exertion of traveling a fair distance on foot during the long night just to attend the Rally with Blake.

Beside him Blake stood, her face filled with confusion as she had watched Adam Taurus dissappear infront of her own eyes tonight into the image of Banesaw, she didn't know what to make of tonights events or if she should intervene, many of those inside she had watched the diminuative figure strike down mercilessly had been without Aura and while they did try to impeed her none managed to succeed, the only thing that stayed Blake for intervening on behalf of the massacred Fang was she knew she was no match for the woman attacking them.

Gradually the clashes of noise that came from within died down slowly and the final noise to leave the building was a strangled cry of pain that was cut short abruptly.

Neither Faunus desired to learn the outcome of the fight that had taken place inside the warehouse, both shuddered in fear and left the area hoping to forget the entire night altogether.

* * *

Yang stood on her high perch watching as the two shrouded figured she knew as Sun and Blake leave the warehouse, she let out a single long breathe thanking anything that cared that nothing had happened to the pair, with Jaune still out of commision and herself in rough shape when she had discovered the pair sneaking out she had followed along hoping nothing would happen to the pair and now that they were safely away she scrutinized the Warehouse that clearly something had happened inside considering the way the occupants fled.

The book Jaune had given her long ago was held in her hand in a frustratingly tight grip as it offered no answer's simply because things had altered so drastically that the entire book was now a work of fiction that would likely never prove helpful to her.

She watched as the pair were definitely not intent of turning around and investigating the disturbance that had happened inside, sighing gratefully at the small blessing it was when the pair vanished from her sight down one of the innumerable alleyway's that dotted the warehouse district. Once they were gone Yang's eye's turned to the building that now stood silent of all form's of noise.

She knew she should leave, she had come to make sure Blake and Sun didn't get in over their respective head's and if they did she would have stepped in, no matter how comical the idea sounded in her head. She was still recovering Aura, the majority her body recouped was being used to deal with the myriad of injuries she had accumulated during the siege, and if that wasn't enough of a bad idea to be considering stepping in if it was needed she was currently devoid of a weapon, or at least one she was comfortable with.

Ember Celica, or what was left of it sat in her locker at Beacon. Both Gauntlets needing serious work, work that could already be underway if Jaune hadn't made certain adjustments himself, adjustments that anyone could potentially repair but if they did questions would be asked about the complex dust system that no one on Remnant used yet. Now she stood with Crocea Mors at her hip, the armguard/shield fastened securely to her arm, the pair was dangerously simple in the right hands. Unfortunately, those hand's were resigned to a bed at Beacon and she had to make due with her less than stellar skill with the weapon setup since it was her only viable option.

Gently lowering herself from her perch that overlooked the structure she approached it with care not wanting to draw the attention of whatever the source of the conflict inside was. Reaching the nearest entrance she pushed it open and peered inside with apprehension, the sounds of slow rattling deaths could be heard from multiple sources as Faunus in White Fang garb could be clearly seen struggling to breathe, bubbles of blood pouring from open mouths as the frantic eye's of the victims sought help that would never come.

The scene at one time would have caused Yang to freeze in horror, now though she had barely paused, desensitized to this level of horror long ago, possibly even more so than most as everyone who was currently in some state of near death currently wore a White Fang uniform.

Cautiously she crept through the building, making effort to stay away from those struggling to stay alive lest they notice her and in hopes that she might save them alert whoever did this to them to her presence, not that any had any chance of seeing her, the warehouse was massive and the bodies all occupied the large open middle area.

Keeping to the shadow's and the sides as much as she could she slowly made her way toward the center of the building where the bodies were now beginning to slowly stop thrashing or struggling to make noise.

Pausing before the last corner before she would run out of cover Yang exhaled slowly, knowing that whoever did this if they were present and watching would see her as soon as she rounded the corner. Readying herself and bringing Jaune's heavy armguard in front of herself, grasping the trigger that would extend the shield inside she stepped around the corner and almost fell over.

Years of experience made it easy for her to not call out in surprise as she tripped over the corpse that she hadn't noticed, sadly the years of experience couldn't help her when the heavy armguard she was forced to use to keep from ending up face down on the floor hit the ground loud enough that a ripple of sound echoed through the warehouse above the lingering noise of those still struggling to prevent their deaths.

Cursing inwardly Yang backpedaled from the spot as a flash of white light exploded in front of her, the backpedal was all that saved Yang from a short thin blade sticking out of a parasol. "NEO?" Yang said loudly in shock, forgetting her earlier need for silence in the shock of being attacked by the multicolored assassin. In a fluid motion of triggering the hidden switch to extend the shield inside the gauntlet, a hiss of air was also heard as Crocea Mor's was released from its sheath and sat at the ready to fight against Neo.

No follow up attack came though. She had been ready for an aggressive attack that would have likely been the end of herself, She was confident that at her best with Ember Celica she could have beaten Neo, it would have been a tough fight but she was confident in that knowledge even if Neo did intimidate her, but that was another Neo and another life, well before she had the skills needed to deal with her herself. Now though with Jaune's weapon and the injuries she had sustained during the Siege, if Neo was to attack her she assumed the outcome would be in Neo's favor today.

The attack did not come though as she heard a faint sliding noise followed by a click, as she looked past the extended shield to investigate it was obvious that Neo had no immediate interest in her and that initial attack had been purely done on instinct, that knowledge was not comforting though as it meant Neo might have killed her a moment ago if she hadn't reacted the way she did.

She stared at Neo as the diminutive assassin stared back, while Neo was clearly focused on herself she quickly lost interest in Neo as her eye's descended to the floor and what lay on it, the body she had tripped over belonged to Emerald. The knowledge of how vital Emerald was to a large portion of Cinders plan's in Jaune's other lives left her dumbfounded. The book that was now useless had listed several times that Emerald was never risked, not unless things were going drastically poorly for Cinder and even then Emerald was typically well guarded. Now though, one of Cinder's greatest assets was a corpse on the ground, one that was having its pockets rifled through by Neo.

Neo's expression while she savagely attacked Emerald's pockets was unreadable to her, it was a mixture of too much of too many different emotions that left Neo's face twisted into something that seemed to speak of a great sadness but her actions deeply of anger. After the search was complete and she watched as Neo pocketed a scroll did the silent women turn and regard herself again, though not before spitting on the corpse and kicking the head of Emerald which snapped to the side with a sickening crack.

"I... I assume I'm not your enemy." Her eye's never left Neo.

A simple shake of a Neo's head was her only response but it went a long way in giving her the ability to relax, if only slightly. Before Yang could think of the next question Neo thrust a hand forward holding a different Scroll than the one she had lifted from Emerald. _'Where is the other Blonde? Why do you have his weapons?'_

"Jaune, he's still in the hospital, probably will be for awhile. I have his weapons because mine were damaged during the Grimm attack and I need Jaune to repair them." She responded truthfully, having no reason not to as well as fearing what a lie might do in this volatile moment. "Did you do all this?" She motioned with her hand across the area littered with bodies.

A nod was what she received this time as the scroll was pushed in front of her face again after another moment. _'Roman is dead. I'm killing those responsible that I can reach.'_

"That you can reach? Does that mean Cinder know you were working against her? Does she know about Jaune and myself?" Panic flared in her mind, if Neo was killing Cinder's assets was Cinder doing the same to Roman's could Jaune be in trouble at this very moment. She had to wait as simple body language could not tell her what she wanted and she was forced to wait as Neo typed out a message.

 _'I don't know, Roman is dead because of Cinder but I don't know how or why, she hasn't returned to the city yet. I'm going after Mercury next and anyone else who she might turn to, the things you asked for Junior will have, I'll make sure he knows your coming.'_

Neo must have been following her eye's as she read because as soon as Yang finished reading a white flash occurred and Neo had vanished leaving alone in a quiet warehouse full of death.

* * *

Breaking into Emerald's scroll had been too easy for Neo, in reality, few model's of scrolls were really all that secure when it came to there unlock feature the exceptions were typically those used by Huntsmen needing to protect sensitive information and even then those could hardly be considered secure to those competent in their craft.

Opening the Scroll and finding what she wanted had been simple, Mercury had been missing as far as she had known and it looked like that wasn't a lie either, Emerald had sent him several messages over the past week looking for him, all had remained unanswered, that was until earlier tonight where a new number made contact.

It had been almost too simple, Mercury wanted to meet Emerald in private, and the illusionist had accepted readily, agreeing to the meeting sometime well after the rally she had just finished with.

Smiling at her good fortune Neo arrived at the place the Scroll said would be the meeting point and waited expectantly for her target to arrive. The wait was rewarded with Mercury's blood dripping onto the floor as he slowly bled out from multiple cuts that crippled the already crippled man.

With Emerald and 'Banesaw' Neo had to be quick with her task but Mercury was alone and no one would be coming to save him so she had taken her time with him torturing him slowly. Now though she sat in silence the drip of blood focusing her concentration as she planned her next move, she wouldn't wait around for Cinder, instead she planned to hunt down those who had helped her and that started with anyone who knew about Mercury's father's job which meant she would be leaving Vale, but not tonight, tonight she had to say goodbye to her friend and mentor.

* * *

Neo watched as the last few scoops of earth were poured one the freshly covered mound of earth.

Below her feet her mentor and friend was intered in a simple grave, one that would remain unmarked to the world, only two people would know this spot.

Neo looked to the other person, the one responsible for digging the grave as well as filling it and nodded respectfully. She didn't know the full relationship between Junior and Roman but the club owner slash gangster had been an ally of Roman's and even with his death seemed to owe him certain favor's, ones that might now extend to her, depending on the circumstances.

Long moments of silence passed before finally, Neo moved away from the grave, she had already given instructions to Junior to watch out for Roman's blonde friends and help them in any way he could.

With this last thing finished a flash of White encompassed Neo and she vanished from Vale.

* * *

 **Many week's after the Siege of Vale**

* * *

The monstrous figure pulled itself from the water, heaving with exertion as it dragged it's seemingly unwieldy frame from the ocean.

The figure was exhausted physically, the process of crossing the great body of water under its own power had been draining to an extreme as it learned early on that its form was not particularly adept at swimming even if it had knowledge of the task. Mentally the figure was invigorated as it knew that the hardest part of the journey to reach the building and figure from it's remaining memories was reaching its conclusion.

Taking it's first step forward motion caught it's eye and a creature separated itself from a shadow, or the creature was a shadow, or not the figures mind warred momentarily with what to make of the odd floating creature that now floated near itself, it was the first time anything had taken the initiative to approach itself, the instinct to lash out and destroy the creature, possibly even consume it to replenish some strength was ignored as a strange sense of familiarity the creature had.

Choosing to ignore the floating creature the figure instead took another step towards the direction in knew it needed to travel, the odd floating creature following along behind, keeping pace no matter how fast the figure might travel.

As the figure moved inland figures began to gather along the sides of the path it had chosen, a road that at one time might have been an impressive feat of human engineering, now though it was barely discernable from the remainder of the terrain surrounding it.

Having no concept of time the figure was unsure how long it took before one of the creatures lining the path moved to bar its way.

The creature was dispatched with no effort, a simple swipe of its arm and the creature was nothing but a smear on the ground, a smear that the figure looked at hungrily as it sought to devour it's would be obstacle but the creature simply dissolved into nothingness in mere seconds, leaving nothing but an ugly smear on the already hellish landscape.

Occasionally a new creature would move to bar it's path only to meet the same fate as the first, though gradually the creature's blocking the figure became more durable, taking multiple blows to down and even landing one or two themselves. The damage from these near-constant fights wasn't much on their own but given the amount they occurred, the figure was rapidly suffering damage with no way to recuperate its strength.

The creatures left no corpses to consume and the figure hadn't attempted it but something instinctively told itself that stopping to rest or sleep would not be possible, the creatures seemed to stare more fiercely every time the figure slowed, even a moment's hesitation had the creature staring with increased ferocity.

The figure had assumed crossing the great body of water was to be the hardest part of its journey, now though it learned it was actually the easiest, but it still persisted. Dozen's upon dozen's of creatures fell in its path as it resolutely pushed towards its destination, the amount that fell soon felt innumerable to the creature and while it's injuries amassed it never faltered to continue, eventually it's destination was glimpsed.

A great building in the distance, sitting alone atop a hill.

It commanded the landscape in a way that it shouldn't, the building was large and imposing but the landscape around it should have made the building seem insignificant no matter how it was placed or designed.

As the figure approached the building the creature that lined the path suddenly vanished, seemingly in an instant, the sudden disappearance did not go unnoticed by the figure, it turned to look behind itself only to see a barrier formed by the creatures, they seemed incapable or unwilling to approach any further yet they all still stared at the figure that now looked at them with a deep malice.

With a contemptuous look the figure turned away from the wall of creatures, now clearly considering them all far below itself.

The remainder of the journey was made in silence, nothing else moved to bar its path and it was only as it nearly reached the entrance to the building did the figure the had hovered alongside it since it left the ocean move to do anything aside from travel in the figures wake.

Reaching the entrance the floating creature disappeared from sight entering the building before the figure and hastily vanishing into the cavernous building.

The figure followed entering the first chamber and immediately sensing the presence of another, a tall arachnid-like creature descended from the ceiling, it's expression unreadable as it gently touched down on the floor.

The figure and the arachnid stared at each other neither moving simply watching the other.

"So this is what has become of our poor Cinder!" A sarcastic but eloquent voice said from the side of the chamber.

In an instant the figure that had locked eyes with the arachnid had a flash of memory, a recognition of the figure behind the voice filled its mind as well as the name.

 _'Cinder'_

A sea of emotion welled up within itself. Primal rage and anger filled it's mind as its vision moved to look away from the Arachnid towards the source of the voice.

The voice came from a singular man but that man was not alone, one other stood with him, another 'Her/ _It's'_ mind recognized.

A searing pain wracked 'Her/ _it's'_ mind, so painful that the world swam out of focus for an instant, then it was brought back into sharp reality as it felt a power it had not since it's first day of being, a power it had nearly forgotten about was now called forth, unbidden and uncontrolled.

A pillar of energy was released from 'Her/ _It's'_ form entirely uncontrolled as it tore through the building, catching both men completely unaware and resulting in there immediate and instantaneous demises, as well as anything the might have occupied the remainder of the building behind them as the hard structure of the building simply ceased to exist.

The figure, _'Cinder',_ didn't stop there, the rage and anger became focused in an instant as brief memories flashed for instants, blurry snippets of full memories, not enough to remember everything but enough that it gave 'herself/ _itself'_ a feeling of betrayal, a betrayal that it wanted revenge for.

The Cinder portion of its mind stared at the arachnid creature in a seething rage, blaming the creature in part for what had happened to itself, pushing itself to act it launched itself into the air.

The creature portion of its mind stared at the arachnid creature in rage, frustration at the state it was in making itself irrational, the host it had been given was too strong and it couldn't win the fight for dominance, blaming the Arachnid creature across from itself it launched itself into the air.

* * *

 **Final round of the Vytal Festival  
**

* * *

"I still think you are overestimating me again, remember no semblance and melee fighter." Jaune said as he was tightening the final strap on his armguard.

"You're underestimating yourself Jaune, you really think any of us stand a better chance against her than you do?" Yang said with a smirk, showing clear enjoyment at sending Jaune out to face Penny in the final match of the Vytal festival.

"Easily. You could overpower her in strength, probably the only person capable of that feat, Pyrrha could easily dictate the fight with her semblance rendering Penny's weapons useless, and Blake could confuse and run circles around her." Jaune sighed when Yang simply shrugged off his response. "I, on the other hand, am going to have a long fight, that I can't guaranty I'll win." Jaune looked past Yang to his other two teammates, neither looking all that perturbed at the thought of maybe losing the entire tournament by a single, very questionable, decision.

"Eh win or lose, none of that matter's to us, we have two prizefighters who have won enough fights between the two of us that we don't really care and Blake was never super invested in winning anyways, having way more fun at the fairgrounds with Sun than fighting." Yang quipped as she watched Jaune stand in front of the door as he waited for it to open to allow him to approach the stage.

"I figured you would say something like that. Fine, I'll humor you and subject myself to this torture, but you're making it up to me later." Jaune twisted his head and winked at his fellow blonde, the meaning behind the action clear to everyone.

Withadramaticsigh Jaune stepped through the door and soon stood face to face with Penny Polendina, not a desirable outcome for himself but with a casual shrug of indifference he rolled his shoulders and took to his ready position, readying himself for what would be a long hard fight.

* * *

 **Graduation Day, Four years after initial enrollment in Beacon academy**

* * *

Unique experiences were something Jaune cherished, and while every life he had lived always had a uniqueness, even the ones he forcibly controlled to reach a desired outcome the uniqueness of those lives were normally awful experiences that he sought to do away with on following repeats.

This life had been a mixture he imagined. It could have easily been the worst life he ever lived but something happened, he never learned exactly what but after the siege of Vale all his enemies vanished.

Well, Cinder vanished, the other's he definitely knew what had become of them, Neo had run rampant through what remained of the White Fang in Vale as well as dealing with Emerald and Mercury before vanishing off to who knew where. He certainly didn't and not for lack of trying either, she was gone and he had come to accept that as well as several other things over the years at Beacon.

Now though his time at Beacon was finished, in just a few short hours this year's graduation ceremony would take place and he for the first time in an innumerable amount of lifetimes would actually be graduating from his huntsman training. He had wandered the Beacon campus visiting sights from his many lives that held significance to him in one way or another, whether being a good memory or a tragic one he visited them before eventually ending up standing inside a dorm room, his dorm room, or at least his first anyways.

Team JNPR did not exist in this lifetime even though all its members were alive and well. The room this year had belonged to team WNRR not that anyone would be able to tell as the room looked nondescript currently, it's occupants having packed up and moved out earlier in the day, as had every student from their year, if he walked across the hall he would find his teams room in the same state.

Moving to his once bed Jaune sat down and stared around the room sitting in silence for a long time as he relived the memories of his time in the room. Only coming back to the present when he heard a faint click of the door opening and him remembering instantly that this wasn't his room and that anyone who entered would likely state that. He was hardly concerned though as he could have concocted any number of stories that would both be plausible and believable if need be.

In walked the person he most expected and smiled as Yang sat next to him on the bed leaning in comfortably. "I figured I would find you in one of these room's, though I'm a little sad it wasn't our room and our bed." She said lightly, a teasing tone to her voice.

"I was going to visit our room next I just got caught up here for longer than I expected I guess," Jaune said as he leaned against Yang. "There are a lot of things to be remembered about this room and the time I spent here. The man I became today, what you see before you started in this room with team JNPR."

"Started, but not ended," Yang said, melancholy seeping into her tone. "What you chose to do afterward and onwards up until this very moment has also shaped you into who you are."

"What's with the melancholy tone Yang, today should be a happy day." Jaune looked towards his fellow blonde who was still leaning against him comfortably but not looking towards him, instead staring towards a wall.

"Can I ask you something selfish Jaune?"

"Of course, anything."

"Can we have a life? One that doesn't involve you looking for the end of the world, looking under every rock or chasing down Salem."

"I... uh, don't know how to respond to that Yang." Jaune looked towards Yang, understanding the question hidden underneath her statement. She wanted a peaceful life, not one centered on chasing down an enemy that she had never personally faced but by all accounts had never been defeated. Jaune could understand her though, a peaceful life is what he inevitably sought even if he may never get it who was he to take away Yang's only chance at it. A contemplative moment of silence passed as Yang continued to lean against himself as he now stared at her. "I think I could let myself be selfish." Jaune felt a shift from Yang, like a long-held breathe being released.

* * *

 **30 Years later.**

* * *

Being selfish had consequences, Jaune knew that and had accepted that when he allowed himself to be so.

If he was fair to himself he had no regrets either, being selfish had given him a life, possibly his only life with someone who could truly understand him.

His time for selfishness was over though as he pulled his hand away from his side. He didn't need to look at his hand to know how bad it was or that trying to hamper the blood flow at this point was pointless.

The gash that he bled from was in all honestly not fatal if it could be treated but the problem was is that treatment would never happen, he was going to succumb to his wound much the same as those around him and the greater world at large would as well.

Remnant as a whole was burning, Salem was on the cusp of winning once again, this time with an army of Grimm creatures that employed both Aura and Semblances, a disturbing change from any of his other lives. The Grimm human creature Salem created in other lives were nothing but puppets, powerful puppets but still nothing more than that.

In the distance, Jaune could still hear the sound's of conflict, of much younger and stronger Huntsmen, continuing to hold out against the creatures that had invaded their home. He wouldn't be returning to the fight, and he was okay with that knowledge, his time was over and even if the pull wasn't urgent he felt the pull of his Semblance. He wasn't ready to lay down and close his eye's though, he had one final thing to attend too and he refused to let even his unrelenting Semblance stop that.

Tired legs carried him through the streets of Vale, past torn down buildings and scene's of carnage as he picked his way through the city to the last place he had seen her. They had been torn apart when the fighting got the worst and from a distance he had seen Yang fall under an unbelievable onslaught, he had wanted to in that moment to end it himself but he could not, giving up was not something he would allow himself to do and besides he had other reasons to live, both of which stood beside him as he watched his wife and they watched their mother fall.

Jaune felt bad about sending his children away but knew that they would be safer with the army of Huntsmen, their teams would keep them protected and if they survived the day would also care for them in their time of grief. They were both strong women and would be fine. Besides he knew he was done and even if they futilely didn't, claiming that they would save him he knew better, and had instead chosen this to be his end after making sure they were where they survive.

After what felt like a marathon but was ultimately only a few blocks Jaune rounded the corner and once again saw the scene that marked the end of Yang's life. A wall of blue/white flames still burned around the area, though the wall was no longer towering into the sky and had more than a few gaps in it it still had an aura of power to it.

The flame's licked at the ground around the area, hungrily looking for something, anything to consume and he made careful work of slipping past it as the dust enhanced fire could easily have spread to him if he wasn't careful.

Once past the wall of flame's Jaune found Yang easily enough, her golden hair standing out starkly against the drab surroundings, even outshining the fire.

Jaune wished that he would see her chest rise and fall, signaling that she was still alive but knew such hope didn't exist.

He moved to her side and sat down lifting her head to cradle it in his lap he slowly felt his world begin to fade, his vision dimming as a soft blue light began to fill his world. The pull was there and he could not fight it forever but he fought to look past his blurring vision and the blue light that was ever present when he died and look at his wife, his only companion that ever truly knew him and likely ever would.

Brushing a lock of hair away from her face he looked upon her one final time before his world turned black and then his eye's opened once again and he found himself laying on his bed in his childhood home.

"Goodbye"

* * *

 **Tidyfrog: Hello, first off for those interested I am Blackwal's new beta as his last one vanished without a trace and he asked me if I wanted to take over and I was more than happy too, under the condition that he finished this story, obviously he agreed and that resulted in this chapter.**

 **That being said he told me right away that he both couldn't and wouldn't be doing the remaining seven chapters that he had outlined for the story and after having a look at what he had intended for those I feel personally that the right choice was made as it would add nothing major to the story that couldn't be told in a much shorter format like you see above.**

 **Now where this leave's Blackwal and myself is a serious question one neither of us has the answer for currently.  
**

 **Blackwal is investing his time with Life after the Heroic's and seems to be very passionate about the story and character's as he see's them, as for me I originally started with ADVENT Failure and with his signing off I will be continuing that story on his behalf though with him directing the story or at least the major plot anyways.**

 **Anyway's I'm done here and hope you enjoy this chapter.**

 **P.S. - I am also planning on finishing the work my predecessor started with doing a proper Beta job on the earlier chapters of this story.**

* * *

 **Blackwal: I feel like I'm going to be lynched.  
**

 **Well, here you have it a chapter to Well this is Different!? ... I have to say this was fun. I know saying that then admitting that I cut/condensed into one much smaller chapter seems like the opposite of fun but it was. I started this story with a Passion that helped me through the writing process and sustained me through to the near end.**

 **The abrupt end to the writing of this story was touched upon in another chapter and the reason stay's, for the most part, the same. I had always intended this story to be violent and cruel and whether or not I succeeded in the eye's of you the readers I don't know but to myself, It went a long way in taking away the fun and drive to continue writing this story. Now I could have changed the story and in a sense, I did by ending it this way but that would have basically been admitting to myself that I wasn't ready to write the kind of story I wanted to, in the end, I just quit writing and instead moved to something fun.**

 **This was always going to be a story where Jaune failed, but that failure also lead to a success.**

* * *

 **Too many lifetimes later to count.**

* * *

 _Sitting on the bullhead Jaune looked out one of many windows and he stared down at the city below, watching its rooftops whiz by with an indifferent expression. All around him on the Bullhead other aspiring huntsmen stood or sat in groups or alone talking excitedly or trying to calm themselves down.  
_

 _He ignored all of them as much as they ignored him, each was caught up in their own moment and he was caught up in his. Jaune chose this seat for a reason, sitting here and looking out this window or more correctly looking at the reflection in this window gave him the view he wanted. Across the bullhead stood the two sisters, Yang congratulating Ruby in being pulled into Beacon two years early and Ruby lacking the confidence she would someday have in abundance but still determined to make this work.  
_

 _It was always a chore to make this work but he wouldn't have it any other way, there was always so much to do before attending Beacon. Training his body to be ready had always been a staple and it still was but it had taken him a considerable amount of time and lives to nail down some of the newer changes._

 _Dealing with Cinder before she could acquire any of the maidens power had been a simple enough feat, thanks to information Roman had given him and a little trial and error he would deal with Mercury and Marcus Black and then ambush Cinder and Emerald, he was so good at that now that the latter two would never even see him, they would simply die to a collection of traps and then he would come along and destroy the bodies, making extra certain that Cinders little glove was destroyed. And that was that Cinder dead and for a time the world as well._

 _He had assumed that was the end of it but due to Cinder being dead Ruby would never get into Beacon as Roman was not around to rob a dust store which she would then interrupt then that just led to a whole catalog of issues so he started over again. Getting Ruby into Beacon wasn't that hard, he could easily get the money needed to higher goons to rob the dust store but again that only solved a singular problem, things seemed to have a knack for not ending up right but finally after many, many lives worth of attempts he had figured it all out.  
_

 _The solution was Roman, as far-fetched as that might have sounded at one point in time now it was impossible to make Team RWBY be like the team he remembered them being without his involvement._

 _And boy was that always a chore, but it worked. Earning Roman trust wasn't easy but with remembered knowledge as well as pretending to just be a flunky of someone else Jaune would position Roman in such a way that Ruby would get into Beacon, Weiss, and Blake would be able to find common ground and become friends and then in a masterful stroke Roman would die, or at least in the eyes of the world at large he was dead, in a convoluted and elaborate job Roman and Neo would seemingly die around the time of the Vytal festival and all loose ends were tied up._

 _In reality Roman and Neo would go on to live out their lives in Vacuo and Mistral, continuing to be successful criminals with new identities._

 _Jaune stopped his musings about what he done and would still need to do and brought himself into the moment, Jaune stood and made his way to the exit of the Bullhead, he watched as Yang baled on Ruby, trying in her own way to get Ruby to make friends even if the process could have been slightly more tactful, Jaune watched wistfully as Yang vanished with her friends, none of which he would see again as they all would fail innitiaion, something Jaune found amusing in a sense as Yang came to Beacon with a posse of friends from Signal and not a single one would pass putting her in much the same boat as Ruby was currently in, though for Yang that would only be a setback as the outgoing Blonde had no issues finding new friends._

 _It was time for him to start another life at Beacon and with a smile that was genuine he prepared himself to once again to be the goofy awkward teenager, a role that he enjoyed to the fullest, wondering what new experiences this life had in store for him.  
_


	39. Chapter 39

Yawning sleepily Jaune eye's fluttered open for a moment, long enough that allowed him to take in his surroundings before allowing his eyes to shut once again.

Keeping himself reclined on his towel he considered for a moment to return to his impromptu nap, the hot summer sun trying it's best to convince him that that was the best idea as well. Jaune knew the sun's plan though, the sun was not on his side, it wanted to trick him into sleeping so that it could burn away at his skin, leaving him red and sore for days due to his laps in judgment in sleeping outside in nothing but a pair of swimming trunks.

Blearily shaking the fogginess from his mind Jaune sat up completely, his sun relaxed muscles protesting the action vehemently, they were choosing to side with the warm relaxing ball of fire in the sky, seemingly forgetting what the results would be to themselves if they actually succeeded in keeping Jaune lying down.

Sitting up caused the two people closest to him to react.

Blake sat reclined on some fashion of beach chair, it lacked any form of legs and sat flat on the ground with no cushioning beneath it. Jaune thought in all honesty that the thing looked uncomfortable but Blake had taken too it immediately, finding the odd chairs the perfect prop for her back as she read what was likely her third or fourth book since arriving in Vacuo.

On his other side sat Weiss, hidden underneath a beach umbrella, the few days so far in Vacuo had not been kind to her fair skin. Jaune felt sorry for the pain Weiss was suffering but knew better than to say anything, instead, he simply got to his feet, stretching his joints and quickly hopping between his feet. Eventually feeling his muscles working as they should as opposed to the jelly sensation they had from relaxing too long in the sun.

His body sorted out Jaune's eyes scanned the seemingly endless sandy golden beach, keen eyes easily picking out the missing members of Team JNPR and RWBY.

Yang and Ruby with half of his sisters were playing a game of volleyball against Pyrrha and the other half of his sisters. Ren stood dutifully beside the net acting as an impartial judge for the event, while Nora yelled excitedly for Pyrrha's team.

Jaune raised his eye at Nora willingly sitting out of any physical activity but casually shrugged it off.

He considered for a moment to move closer to the game but decided he would rather take a walk down the beach. The beach stretched on for a ridiculous distance in either direction, a person could wander for miles in either direction before reaching impassible terrain.

Moving away from his group Jaune found him passing a wide variety of different groups.

Families with young children were everywhere, dotting the enormous beach everywhere.

After the families came the couples on romantic getaways, these groups ranged from free-spirited teens to newlyweds, even retired people as well. People old enough to be his grandparents, their skin a tough leather brown and not wearing nearly enough clothing also appeared all over the beach. Jaune passed those couples the quickest, trying his absolute best not to see anything.

Jaune's eye's swept past group after group of people as he walked the beach, his eyes only ever focusing on certain individuals, the individuals didn't look out of place or anything if anything they looked more natural than anything else along the beach.

Vacuo Huntsmen, hired by the multitude of resorts that dotted the expansive beach, each Huntsman bronzed to perfection from basically existing at the resort. They normally stood alone, guests learned early on during visits that while the Huntsmen would be cordial and polite with them they weren't interested in being hit on by drunk civilians. They were paid good money to keep the beach free of Grimm and occasionally break up a fight or two.

His walk came to an end when he spotted people he recognized, namely his father, but joined by a smiling TaiYang Xiao Long. The two men talking quite loudly and animatedly, his fathers booming voice carrying for some distance, Tai's voice seemingly enveloped by it but clearly punctuating the air whenever the two laughed, which was a lot.

When introduced to each other after their children had completed their first year at Beacon the Arc's and Long's had quickly become friends much the same way their children had.

Hence the reason for the combined family vacation for the successful completion of their children's third year at Beacon, especially for Jaune as he was being regarded as potentially one of the most successful Huntsmen to every be trained at the academy.

/~~~~~~~~/

Jaune's vision swam for a moment as he approached his father, the world blurred for an instant then came sharply into focus.

/~~~~~~~~/

Shaking off the weird feeling Jaune walked the final few feet and sat down next to Qrow, the man appearing seriously out of place in the relaxing atmosphere of their Vacuo holiday.

Pausing Jaune felt something wasn't right, 'Qrow _wasn't here in_ Vacuo _, he was still in Vale. He had been approaching his father and_ Taiyang _. No that isn't right it was always Qrow here, why did I think my father was present.'_ Shaking his head for a moment, clearing away the strange thoughts.

"I'm surprised to find you outside." Jaune motioned to Qrow's clothing, the senior Huntsman wearing his typical attire, despite the beating heat of the Vacuo desert sun, or maybe in spite of it, he wasn't sure.

Qrow raised a full glass of some dark liquid to his lips taking a longer than necessary drink and finishing it off with a satisfying 'ahhhh' before even turning to acknowledge his company. "What can I say, I was driven out here in search of a bartender who can actually mix a proper drink." Qrow dipped his head towards the sole man who worked the beach bar.

"Figures that would be your excuse," Jaune spoke under his breath to himself, he wanted to ask Qrow something when he came over, but what it was he couldn't remember, he couldn't even remember if the question had been all that important.

"Look kid, I know you don't really know me that well and you probably have an issue with me drinking since were sposed to be here on official business, but that business is also supposed to have us here as tourists, so take it easy, I know what I can handle." Qrow smiled, it was a laid-back one that to a casual observer would more than likely look like the foolish smile of someone full of drunken confidence.

Jaune nodded his head, seeing the all to familiar glint of steel in Qrow's eyes, sharp and focused ready for anything. "I don't think that's why I came over here." Jaune spoke more to himself than Qrow, the older man clearly heard his words though and sent him an appraising glance.

"You doing all right kid? You're looking out of sorts, which from what I hear from my nieces and Ozpin is unusual for you."

Jaune felt Qrow's gaze fixate on him, legitimate concern apparent in them, concern Jaune felt relieved to see as his chair slid out from beneath him, his eyes closing as he collided with the floor.

* * *

Jaune's eyes crashed open as he flung himself into a sitting position, so sudden was his action that a startled yelp came from right beside him.

Blakes beach chair was sitting overturned beside him a book loosely discarded beside it and Blake stood poised for a fight, the stance immediately fell away and an embarrassed rush of blood crossed her cheeks as she righted her chair and gathered her book. "What was that about Jaune?" She asked as she settled down again, flipping through pages trying to find where she had left off before the sudden jump scare.

"Uh, nothing," Jaune looked around hazily, feeling a strong sense of deja vu, "I just... I was dreaming and I fell in the dream I guess." Jaune said apologizing to Blake.

Blake said nothing simply rolling her eyes at Jaune's goofy apology, thinking it sweet that he felt the need to apologize at all when it was something he had no control over, she readily returned to being invested in her book.

Turning his body Jaune was going to apologize to Weiss similarly only to find her missing, not simply missing but the umbrella she was hiding under gone as well, in its place was a collection bags and towels, each clearly belonging to someone he knew, crests prominently displayed on everything. Shaking his head slightly Jaune made his way to his feet wondering why exactly he thought Weiss was sitting next to him under an umbrella.

Thinking of her Jaune immediately found where Weiss was, the same spot she had been every day since they arrived. Near the water's edge stood Weiss and a very apprehensive Neptune, the Blue haired huntsman looking very uncool as he wore water wings, a life preserver and an inflatable tube around his waist even though he was only ankle deep in water.

Weiss had taken it upon herself to help her boyfriend overcome his water phobia and she was being remarkably patient with the task.

Taking to his feet Jaune shook his head slightly, trying to dispell the weird dream he had just had, his eyes scanned the beach looking for his team to find the three squaring off against Sun, Sage, and Scarlett in a friendly volleyball match. Yang and Ruby both officiating the match, Yang having a clear biased to the Mistral team and Ruby being Biased towards her Beacon friends. The score of the match then being wildly different depending on which sister you asked.

Jaune didn't bother approaching either of the sisters to inquire about any score though instead, he tried to find the sea of Blonde hair that would lead him to his sisters, wondering where they had vanished too. Not that he was overly concerned about them, the older ones would keep the younger ones in line.

After scanning everywhere nearby on the beach Jaune felt a little restless on being unable to spot anyone with hair that matched his in color.

"Hey, Blake do you know which way my sisters went?"

Blake looked up from her book for a moment, "I didn't know your sisters were here also."

"What do you mean you didn't know they were here? Who did you think those seven blonde girls were?" Jaune asked, confused.

"What blonde girls?, the only Blonde out here that I know is Yang."

Jaune's eyes were drawn to Yang in that instant before his mind thought of a reply. "I'm sorry, yeah the only blonde here is Yang, sorry that weird dream that I was falling has me confused..."

/~~~~~~~~~/

Jaune felt his eye's sink to the ground as his head spun for a moment, he felt himself teetering slightly, his body feeling on the verge of falling over before his world snapped back into perfect clarity.

/~~~~~~~~~/

"My Jaune, are you trying to make me jealous, asking about blonde's and then staring at Yang." Pyrrha asked as she pushed herself to her feet, pushing herself against Jaune's form as well as finding his lips with her own.

"What, no, I never, sorry." Their lips parted and Jaune found himself fumbling for an excuse or an apology for staring too long at Yang and asking about the blonde in the first place.

 _"I did ask about Yang though, didn't I?'_

"Relax Jaune I'm only teasing you, come on let's go swimming before it gets too late." Pyrrha planted another kiss on her boyfriend before leading him towards the waterline.

Jaune fell in line behind Pyrrha enjoying being gently pulled along by the beautiful redhead. His eyes looked towards Neptune and Weiss, he felt like offering to Weiss to throw Neptune in as a joke. The place Jaune remembered the two being was empty though, neither Huntsman was present at all. Rather they were present but now they were playing in a rather heated Volleyball match between team SSSN and team RWBY. Ren acting as the referee and Nora threatening the entirety of team SSSN any time they looked to score a point, making the match be very lopsided score wise towards the ladies.

Shaking his head in confusion, Jaune followed Pyrrha into the water, the waves gently washing around them as they swam through the warm ocean water. He kept his eyes always toward Pyrrha enjoying the powerful grace in which she did everything.

Diving through the waves the two parted as a pair of children who weren't paying attention to there surrounding accidentally barreled between them.

Breaking through the surface again Jaune found his mouth occupied with another pair of lips, blinking water from his eyes he drew back in shock when he didn't see Pyrrha's piercing green eyes, instead they were a clear silver, and sparkling with laughter.

"Ruby! What?" Jaune frantically thrashed in the water for a moment his eyes looking for a main of red hair, hoping to explain peacefully to Pyrrha that Ruby had snuck up on him.

Something was terribly wrong, Jaune thrashed violently in the water, his ability to swim seemingly vanishing in his panic now that his mind was certain things were changing. Reaching the beach after a painfully long struggle Jaune stepped toward the volleyball game.

The players had changed again, this time Nora and Ren took on Blake in Yang in a simple two versus two, Weiss sat under an umbrella near the volleyball net, keeping score and cheering on her teammates.

"Jaune, whats wrong." Ruby's voice called out in a steady fashion but there was a large degree of concern inside her tone.

"Ruby? What's happening?"

"What do you mean, what's happening?" Concern was shifting to fear as her voice began to sound panicked.

"Things, things are changing, I'm not sure whats going on." Jaune looked toward Ruby, he was afraid, something was wrong and he didn't have an answer for it. Reaching forward Jaune placed a hand tenderly on Ruby's cheek, in an effort to both reassure her and well as himself.

His action had the opposite effect however as Ruby's eyes went wide in shock.

He followed her line of sight to his chest, on it he saw a few drops of blood, immediately he felt his nose, the feeling of flowing blood caused him to pause for a moment, the world around him spinning wildly, a fear-laden scream was the last thing he heard as his eyes closed, he didn't even have time to bring his arms up to protect himself from the fall.

* * *

Jaune fought wildly to his feet, his eye's absorbing his surroundings through an unfathomable amount of experience, his eyes told a story to his mind, unfortunately, his mind could not grasp the images it saw.

Jaune thrashed wildly, striking out and blurry images his eyes showed him but never connecting, long minutes passed before he slowed down, his body exhausting itself with the maniac level of exertion.

Breathing heavily Jaune collapsed face first into the ground, the mixture of fine and coarse sand rubbed abrasively as he hit the ground.

With his wild frantic thrashing over Jaune's mind finally began to understand what he was seeing.

It was the middle of the day, the hottest time of any day, making it even hotter was the fact that he was on a Vacuo beach, the entire beach was long abandoned of any inhabitants or human inhabitants, his eyes spotted a good number of bird's mainly seagulls but other's mixed in as well.

Rising to his feet he took in more of his surroundings, an endless beach stretched in either direction, the water also appeared endless, stretching out towards the merciless horizon, in the final direction, inland, stood a collection of structures, all surrounding one massive building, a beach resort.

Not a very successful one if it's condition was an indication, the entire structure was in a horrible state of disrepair, strong ocean storms having heavily battered the building over the years and with no humans around to maintain it some of the less structurally sound outlying building lay demolished by the elements.

Realizing he was alone finally got Jaune moving, he followed a trail in the sand he assumed he made that led back into the ruined resort, along the way discovering disturbing signs of a long-ago battle.

Some building hadn't simply been flattened from disrepair, instead splintered wood and nearly obscured rends in the ground spoke of this place at one time being attacked by Grimm, peeking his head inside a couple of the more intact buildings confirmed that with eerie clarity, finding clearly human skeletons, sometimes intact mostly just a few scatter remains

Eventually his trail brought him back to a pile of bag's, Huntsmen equipment clasped to each, the kind you would see on huntsmen who rarely see civilization,the bags were placed in a way that if whoever they belonged to could be easily retrieved in a hurry and it would be hard to leave anything behind.

Approaching the bags Jaune was startled when he heard a noise to his right, a shallow ragged breathing. Peering around the corner Jaune winced in sympathy as he watched Sun Wukong fight desperately for breath.

It was obvious to Jaune that Sun was on borrowed time, his lungs were filling and it was causing him to slowly drown on his own lifeblood. Blake quietly whispered to him, not trying to reassure him that he would be fine, he was a huntsman and knew what his wounds meant, instead she just tried to keep him smiling, a commendable task and one that seemed to be working but Jaune doubted that was because of any words Blake was saying but more simply her presence that kept a smile on his face.

The wounds must have been fairly old as Sun didn't linger long, passing away as peacefully as one could only a few short minutes after Jaune first noticed him and Blake.

Jaune busied himself cleaning his weapon, though he wasn't sure why exactly, his weapon was immaculately cared for, due in large part to him not wanting to deal with these situations.

' _No, that isn't right. I stopped these situations from happening. There hasn't been an outcome like this in thousands of lives.'_

Jaune shook his head clearing away cobwebs that sought to confuse him. This wasn't right, he stopped all this from happening, fighting to remember what was happening or had happened to him in the last few hours, or minutes he wasn't sure, time seemed confusing all of a sudden.

His thoughts seemed linked to this time, if he spotted something he recognized information was readily available, to readily, any new stimuli pushed his other memories away, attempting to make him forget.

Forcing himself to remember had an equally alarming consequence as he felt under his nose, alarmed to find it bleeding again.

Closing his eyes Jaune expected to find something to have changed when he opened them but right now that wasn't his concern. Pushing his mind Jaune sought to remember everything, unfortunately, his memory only seemed to consist of this life, plus the last few hours of whatever was currently happening.

/~~~~~~~~~/

Eye's closed and his mind focused on itself Jaune felt lightheaded, he squeezed his eyes shut tighter and focused on the last thing he saw.

/~~~~~~~~~/

Feeling his lightheadedness clear up immediately Jaune opened his eyes to a scene of carnage, Grimm corpses slowly dissolving into nothing. All around him were streaks of black viscous blood, the only thing that seemed to be left behind by the Grimm. Shards of ice were lodged in every surface, wherever ice wasn't present fire raged in its place.

Seeking to have his feet below him Jaune stood, gasping in pain as he stood upright, looking down he saw a deep gash along his stomach, a sloppy bandage tied in place.

The angle the bandage was tied indicated that he hadn't done it as it would have been impossible to tie the knot and keep the bandage tight. Feeling unsteady and idly wondering how much blood he had lost Jaune began pushing his Aura towards the wound, using every trick he knew to speed up the healing.

The first thing he noticed when he began to use his Aura is how diminished it felt currently, whatever this incarnation of him that he was experiencing had been through one hell of a fight it appeared, more so than the nearby carnage accounted for.

Gingerly walking forward he picked up faint sounds of steel scraping against cobblestone, the direction was easy to decern but the distance was harder, everything sounded faintly muted.

Moving as quickly as his body could he approached the sounds, discovering them to belong to a pair of Huntress's fighting desperately against a dozen Grimm.

Any fit Huntsman would find the prospect of facing a mere dozen Grimm to be laughably easy, that was not the case currently though.

Through the melee Jaune discovered the two Huntress's to be none other than Ruby and Weiss, both sporting an assortment of injuries, there faces grim and determined.

Jaune moved forward to help the two, not sure what he could do with the condition he was in but hoping his presence might be enough to distract a few Grimm.

Bringing his sword down hard Jaune felt the Grimm shudder once before collapsing to the ground, his strike had been instant and fatal to the distracted Grimm but he wouldn't get such an easy opportunity twice, a trio of Grimm wheeled around to face him now that they were aware of his presence.

A powerful swipe from the lead Grimm forced him to move his Aura away from taking care of his wound to help block the blow, but that was a single time trick as Jaune felt naked, his Aura completely depleted.

With it gone his body felt every wound in sharp clarity, the gash along his stomach apparently not the only injury he currently contended with.

Without his Aura supporting him Jaune's felt his left arm sag and hang limply, his right leg buckled under his weight, or that what he assumed anyways.

His fall to the floor, his body screaming in pain from feeling the full weight of his injuries blinded him to an effect he was becoming more and more familiar with.

* * *

Unable to protect himself Jaune closed his eyes tight, expecting to be impaled by Grimm claws at any moment, that moment took a painfully long time in coming, Jaune had experienced this type of death before and he never knew the time to slow to this degree.

Peeking open an eye Jaune found himself once again lying on a familiar beach.

Not wasting any time Jaune got to his feet, breathing in the salty sea air deeply as he felt around his body searching for any injuries he might have, after discovering nothing he finally took a moment to survey his surroundings, the action was wasted as the scenery was the same beach, the only difference being that the resort seemed to have experienced a massive fire some time ago as it sat completely in ruins, nothing but an empty shell surrounded by occasional stubborn pillars.

The beach did offer one new piece of information for him, in it there were two sets of tracks, one clearly his the other he wasn't sure, they had stood beside him at one point but had returned to the burnt resort on their own.

Hefting his weapon he followed the trail, the eerie quiet of his surroundings putting himself fully on edge. Expecting at any moment to be ambushed by some hidden danger it took him long minutes to reach the shell of the once lavish resort.

Finding the owner of the trail took time, time that Jaune felt slipping by, unsure what exactly was causing, whatever it was, to happen, to well happen. He pushed the thoughts of that from his mind, thinking directly about what was occurring was not going to help since he wasn't even sure what was happening to him.

It wasn't his Semblance, if it was he would be a scrawny thirteen year old back in his parents home. If it was his Semblance and it was somehow broken he had no idea how one would fix a broken Semblance, especially one as bizarre as his.

Rounding a corner, the trail he was following stopped as he located who left it.

Yang sat with her back to him, her hair once immaculate and golden now a dirty straw color, hung from her head in a loose ponytail. Jaune's eyes were drawn to a sight he hadn't seen in a frighteningly long time, a mechanical arm laid on the floor, haphazardly discarded by its owner.

Panic shot through his mind, remembering a similar experience from lifetimes ago.

Sprinting forward Jaune reached for Yang, arms grasping desperately to stop a terrible outcome.

/~~~~~~~~~/

As he lunged forward Jaune felt a familiar dizzying sensation. A frustrating cry escaped from his lips as the world came into focus.

/~~~~~~~~~/

He stood alone, the room devoid of any life besides his own, at his feet was a freshly moved pile of earth. At the head of the dirt sat a mechanical arm, acting as a sole marker for who resided within.

Jaune slumped to his knee's.

 _'No, this isn't how this happened, I stopped her.'_

Time had no meaning as he remained kneeling in the dirt, completely alone. Even the sounds of the world stopped as he remained motionless, waiting for the inevitable sensation that would mean he was about to return to the beach, wondering what fresh hell he would wake up to next time.

Gradually he felt himself slipping, he closed his eyes and waited.

* * *

 **What's this?**

 **To anyone how reads this have fun figuring out what's exactly going on, or just enjoy the read.  
**

 **As always lemme know what you think even if what you think is just an excuse to criticize my crap grammar.**


	40. Chapter 40

Victory was a curious thing.

Centuries upon centuries engaged with a stubborn and frustrating enemy, one whom always managed to keep the conflict they had engaged in at a stalemate.

She sat alone in her towering home, a long table before her flanked by four chairs, more precisely the remains of four chairs.

In front of every chair sat the spoils of her victory, the four relics she had long sought after to finally ensure her victory. Each relic had remained in place for many long centuries, having only been removed from their positions once in the long history of her ownership.

The time they were removed was long past, removed to a safe location while she played host to a dying old man.

A man who at the time had been nothing but a final distraction from her enjoying her complete victory.

The old fool was no threat to her, nothing was so she allowed him to enter her home, his stay was a terribly short affair. The ancient and weathered body of the frail human succumbed to his own age. His long arduous trek ended in nothing but his death.

With the last human dead she had finally succeeded, her long desired goal achieved and she could rest easy in the knowledge that nothing would ever appear to challenge her dominance again, and for a time that was all she needed.

The Relics were returned to the positions they sat in now, quiet and silent.

Century after century passed and the blackened world of Remnant spun on and on, it's broken moon gliding through the sky, a silent witness to the world below.

As the centuries passed she found herself contemplating many things, her conflicts with her nemesis among other things.

Every conflict they had ever engaged in great, or small she thought over them all. The power's she wielded through the Relics allowed her memories to play out before her eyes, not simply play out as her mind remembered them but as they actually happened, she could watch them from any perspective she desired, finding it fascinating to learn what her opponent was truly thinking.

Some memories were frustrating to observe, learning just how close she had been to her ultimate victory. The frustration never lasted particularly long as whether she had won or lost on that day meant nothing as she was victorious in the end.

Gradually looking through the memories of her life and conflicts grew boring and she began thinking of the singular ancient human who had been her final visitor.

At the time of his visit she had already believed humanity had been completely scoured from the world.

* * *

A sole survivor of an entire race had appeared from the ether of the world. This singular human was not cowering alone in a hole, attempting to survive just a few moments longer, no this ancient human walked in the open, walking with purpose and direction, his destination was her home.

Fear was not an emotion she was ever afflicted with, but his appearance had caused her a moment's pause. The man had survived everything the world had become and was marching toward her home.

Not only was he marching on her home but he was frighteningly close before any of her Grimm even reported his presence to her.

Immediately she had sent for powerful Grimm, her territory was swarming with both powerful and intelligent Grimm, too four separate creatures she entrusted a Relic each, fearing for there safety, if this sole man, as ancient as he appeared, was some final gambit to reverse her victory she would not allow him in the vicinity of any one relic, let alone all four at once.

Once she had been confident that the Relics were safe she turned her attention towards the man.

Despite his advanced years, he was still a man of some power, he would need to have been to reach the shores of her home and trek so far on foot, the journey though was exacting a terrible toll though, through her scouts she could tell the man was closing in towards his death.

Through her scouts she could see his weather face twisting with pain with every step, ragged shallow breathing escaping from his lips.

The condition of her opponent meant little, how often had a weakened opponent snatched victory from defeat too many times and she wasn't going to let it happen again.

Looking into a beings mind was a simple thing for her, a talent she had made use of many times over her long existence. Reaching forth she touched the mind of her visitor, what she discovered was that his mind was a labyrinth.

His mind sat before her like an open book, one to easily read at her leisure. However, this mind was large, so expansive it was that her mind felt lost at the scale.

His memories were cavernous and jumbled, the deeper she looked things appeared to openly contradict other memories. She could not endure the confusion the man's mind was and withdrew herself from his deeper thoughts.

A broken mind was easy to traipse through, she could discover whatever she desired and then simply depart.

This man's mind was different though, he appeared fully lucid his memories sharp and clear just, confusing. Every path she ventured through in his mind was filled with mosaic walls, filled from top to bottom with memories, memories that would openly contradict each other.

She had refrained from spending much time in the man's mind, the simple-minded complexity of it felt impossible to understand, instead, she took what memories she could find and began to craft nightmares from them.

* * *

The meeting with the traveler had ended all too soon, his heart and words both failing him in his end.

A truly regretful occurrence as she wished to at least to have talked with the man, instead she had simply mocked him as he died, her constructed monstrosities of his friends had been wasted, and like any waste was disposed of. Evaporating into dust before her visitor's body had even grown cold.

Any thoughts of her visitor soon vanished from her mind, instead focusing on reviewing history.

Towards the end of her gaze through the long history of the world she made note of an interesting instance in time. Her visitor, the last human alive, was absent from everything.

Curiosity piqued her interest and she found the moment in time her traveler visited her. She focused on this man, ignoring everything else that happened in the world, the great and terrifying events that would transpire throughout this lone humans life.

Backward through time the memory the relics held of this man flowed, she watched and absorbed everything that occurred, even in reverse she caught ahold of and understood everything that was occurring.

What occurred though meant nothing though, it simply created another question.

Who was this man?

* * *

As a young man, he had left his home.

He simply awoke one night his eyes and expression changed from the day before when he had been a happy and carefree youth, to a serious foreboding demeanor.

He rose from his bed and departed his family home, only a handful of possessions gathered, the only item of note was a weapon he had carried with him until his death.

Vanishing into the depths of a nameless forest he built himself a home. A life of scarcity and hardship followed for many years as she watched the boy grow into an imposing man, his imposing form accented by his eyes, void of any joy or happiness.

The man existed on his own for his entire life, never interacting with another human throughout his long life.

He hunted his own food, grew what he was able and quietly existed as the world became a darker more sinister place.

On the occasions a Grimm crossed his path nothing ever occurred, the Grimm seemed wholely blind to his presence, even going as far as to look directly at him never sparked a Grimm to action. To both the Grimm and the world this man simply did not exist.

Year after year the man did nothing, met with no one and never spoke, his home empty of any furnishing or luxury in any way.

One day as the man grew more advanced in age he began his long journey the journey that would result in his death.

His course never wavered, unerringly he traveled to his destination, a place he should have had no knowledge of.

His journey ended once again at her feet.

* * *

She had sat in contemplative silence after that for a long time, not understanding anything about the man's life.

He had no information on who she was or where her home was located, yet he unerringly traveled there, he was not terrified by her appearance as many were.

Regret was not something she found herself entertaining often but she felt regret that she let this man perish how he had, he was a mystery.

That mystery was further deepened when she remembered what his mind was like, a deep and fathomless well of contradictions. His life shouldn't have allowed for such a fantastic and expansive mindscape yet she had experienced it first hand.

* * *

Salem sat at the head of the table, flanked by her Relics.

Reaching out with her own power she touched each relic in turn, connecting with the power within each, coaxing it forth and drawing it towards a fifth object.

Resting on the table before her sat a simple blade, crafted long ago by a skilled smith. The weapon was far from perfect, but the craftsman had shown great care in his work, a care that allowed the blade to last through the long centuries, surviving well past the point it's final owners bones had turned to dust.

Pouring a small portion of each Relic's power into the blade Salem sought to use the weapon as a medium to connect to the mind of its long-dead owner.

She had no idea if such a feat was possible but so far the relics had never let her down when she attempted anything with them and she was confident that this would be another success.

Control over the powers flowing from the relics was a slow methodical coaxing, each Relic performed an individual task, and if called upon to answer that task they responded to whoever wielded them immediately, but for how she used them now it required patience and finesse.

Gradually the power reached the blade.

Power flowed into the weapon and with it a connection like no other before it was formed.

Salem watched in awe as the blade showed a history she was unfamiliar with.

The perspective of this new world's history did not come from the blade but its wielder.

Salem watched with interest as her visitor, Jaune Arc, lived a wholly different life.

He awoke one night in a state of confusion, a state that persisted throughout his existence.

The life ebbed and flowed, during it short duration. The wayward traveler not lasting past the age of seventeen.

Dying a heartbreaking death to one of her own minions, Cinder, who had killed another right before.

As Jaune Arc died he lived again, and again and again.

Her visitor was far more interesting than she had ever assumed, so stubborn in his task.

His initial approach to solving his problems was to become a better version of himself, every life he trained harder than the one before. Pushing himself to new heights in skill, mastering new weapons and combat abilities in his never-ending quest to save his love.

Gradually as he became more and more successful his desires changed, she watched as he still struggled to save his love, in some lives even managing to temporarily succeed. His desires changed into saving his friends, refusing to abandon them even if he knew he could escape the hell his life had become he would stay with them.

His lives gradually became longer and longer, surviving many years, well past the point humanity had any chance of recovering.

The other versions of herself in these lives all being successful in the end as well, a pleasant thought to her that was, being fated across all reality to succeed put a smile on her emotionless face.

Lives lived by the young Huntsman began to blur together from one to the next, she watched as he began to make subtle minor changes, gradually becoming more and more successful.

His love, the vibrant redhead could not be saved, he still attempted his best but she could see the resignation building as every life, he was forced to love her and then watch her die.

So his lives turned into lives of conflicts and wars as he began to stop relying on only himself and his close friends. He began to manipulate the world, uniting the kingdoms against herself, pushing other versions of herself to desperate levels.

Still, he failed, her other selves would overcome his manipulated armies and her visitor would start again.

Then everything stopped, one life and another began, or it did not.

Life after life had passed and she eventually reached her reality.

In disbelief, after everything she had watched her reality was the one this determined individual stopped.

He rose from his bed and left the world to burn on its own, he was defeated and tired.

Watching him exist on his own, understanding exactly what brought him to this point made the long life he choose to live a truly tragic experience to view.

She found herself feeling sorry for this man, an emotion she had never felt before. Had she known the hardship he had faced she felt she would have attempted to help him, ease his suffering in some way. He had fought a valiant and secret war on his own and deserved a true ending.

Pouring more power into the sword she focused harder on the man's life, particularly in the time during their all to brief meeting.

He had traveled so far to meet her and she had simply mocked him in his final moments.

Now she listened, focusing everything she had into trying to discover what he came to her for.

Her home sat in a deathly silence as in the faintest of whispers she heard her traveler beg for her to end his suffering.

* * *

Silence ruled her world as she sat and considered her visitor's final request.

To allow him a final and permanent death.

Her gaze fell on each of the four relics remembering all the fantastic things she had achieved through them.

Granting her visitor his final death is something no one would be capable of, a Semblance is not something even she could alter or destroy, at least not on her own.

With the relics she considered it might be possible but even if it was this Huntsman was beyond her now, moved on to another life, maybe even succeeding on his own in finding his own end already.

Perhaps he visited another version of herself, at a younger age, one more capable of having his desire known.

Staring for long hours at the blade of Jaune Arc she contemplated what to do, eventually, she reached into the relic's once again pulling forth more power than she had ever before.

The blade shone with its own light as the power reached it.

Again she used the blade to connect with its long-dead owner, looking through its history up to the point it had reached her.

With its owner's death in this reality, the blade knew nothing of what happened to its master in his next life, it was simply a relic now, lost and forgotten to another time.

Pouring more power into the blade it lifted itself from the table and hung suspended in the air, the light it emitted now bright enough that she had to look away as it began to sear her vision.

Closing her eyes she continued to feed the power of the relics into the blade, hoping to push further and allow it to reconnect with its master, to find where he exists now.

The strain of controlling so much power caused beads of sweat to form on her brow as she began to breathe irregularly but still, she persisted as she felt a change beginning to occur.

Gradually a new vision appeared, of her traveler waking again, this instance in time so familiar to her that she wasn't sure if this was a new reality or one she had already viewed before.

The answer came quickly with decisive assurance, her visitor lept from his bed in a storm of frustration, running to the very weapon she now poured the power of the relics into and ran it through his own chest.

Immediately a new reality appeared and she watched over and over again as Jaune Arc repeatedly killed himself, losing track almost immediately of exactly how many times he committed the act she simply watched in rapt disbelief the grief he portrayed with every time he awoke again.

Then he stopped.

He finally awoke and simply laid still, the frustration at his failure was still present, boiling just under the surface as he sought control over his body.

Watching as he stood from his bed, he moved calmly to where she knew he would find the blade that he had used to end his life hundreds of times now.

With reverent care, the blade was removed from it's resting place and her visitor inspected it with great interest, his eye not longer of defeat but instead, the blade reflected a look of resignation.

The blade hung poised to end his life once more, a simple thrust, one that never happened as he looked toward the blade as he lowered it before eventually placing it with care once more upon the mantle.

* * *

Finding herself engrossed in her travelers continuing lives she began watching them in interest, even lives that seemingly had no change she watched with interest.

Her traveler still proved unsuccessful in ever thwarting her but he was pressuring her harder than ever before.

His earlier attempts at manipulating the governments of the world looking like the action of an infant, his newer attempts were masterwork.

Managing to unite the globe against her and making it appear to be each kingdoms own decision.

He even managed to push another version of herself to desperate levels, sacrificing her most powerful minions to exert temporary control over valuable players.

Many lives ended in fantastic battles, none quite as impressive as a legion of white Grimm fighting truly legendary battles.

Those battles finally ended, the traveler gave up on that tactic and sought a new approach. Each new approach was met with new levels of success and failure and gradually his lives of failure began to blend together, her interest in the worlds began to lessen as her traveler sought less and less to achieve any change and instead simply followed the motions.

Some lives barely discernable that he was even truly paying attention to the world around him.

Her interest in his lives did not waver, however, as she sought to understand why he continued his charade, looking for that inevitable point that he gave up again and approached her.

Curiosity pushed her forward further and further though memories of different lives, intrigue over what the second meeting between her and the Huntsman might turn out like.

Through life after life, she found herself barely skimming the details, desiring to find another life that her visitor would approach her alone again.

So hurried did her search become that she missed a truly unique life, one that her visitor lived for a selfish reason at the request of another. Lost to the ether as her search moved ever forward.

Gradually changes began to appear, her visitor's life grew longer and longer with every new reset, not only that but her plan's in those lives were pushed farther and farther back.

Slowing her pace through the lives she watched as a sole life played out.

Her visitor never confronted her directly, but he did fight against herself in a way.

He instead dealt with her minions, the first always being Cinder, dying to an ambush while she was preparing to steal the Fall maiden's powers.

Her other minions were as equally unfortunate as her visitor would find ways to isolate and kill them.

With their deaths the version of her in those lives would recede from the world, looking for other opportunities to achieve their desires but never being able to come close to the level of power they would wield earlier in their lives.

Her new minions never matching the usefulness of the ones her visitor disposed of.

Speaking of her visitor he seemed to be enjoying his existence finally, having come to terms with his existence he engaged with life instead of merely being a passenger to his Semblance.

* * *

Years pass by as she watched her visitors many many years play through there entirety as she sought to find the end, where the true traveler existed.

Time in her own world was an insignificant thing as she devoted herself fully to the task, one that she knew like her victory in acquiring the relics was simply a matter of time.

Time was a thing both her traveler and herself had in abundance, and that abundance finally ran out as time stopped.

She watched through the lives at a greatly accelerated pace, only stopping if a certain event caught her interest and then she would watch it through.

Now through her vision, time slowed to a crawl as a new life came into focus as she looked through the eyes of her traveler.

He work seemingly at random from his sleep, flanked by familiar figures from his previous lives.

She had found were her traveler was a Huntsman in his prime.

Being in his prime meant little as the world he existed in it was a far departure from all his recent lives, he appeared to be in a state of confusion over something.

Leaning into the vision she began to notice things in a clearer way than when she simply observed her object of interest, that being her traveler.

She did not have much time to view the world her traveler existed in as it seemingly melted away and a new reality appeared as her traveler seemed to transition to waking on a beach in much the same condition he had been in previously, maybe a bit malnourished but still a formidable looking man.

It did not take long for her to understand why her traveler was in a state of confusion as she observed him through time he would be displaced many more times.

The pattern to the displacements soon grew frustratingly erratic and she was forced to pull her attention back from whatever her traveler was experiencing.

As she pulled back she let go of the power she had been manipulating the entire time, the normal feeling of the power escaping back into their containers was not felt as the four relics remained connected to the Sword that hung suspended in the air before her.

A sudden fear for her control over the relic's grasped her and she sought to sever the connection between the four and the sword forcibly.

Bringing her own considerable might to bear she forcibly entwined her power into the connection, for an instant she felt the connection the relics had with the blade waver.

When that second ended she knew she had made a mistake.

A wave of power swept through the room, the table underneath the relics turned to dust as the shockwave of power flowed outward.

In a single instant, she put all her power into protecting herself from the shockwave.

Her world shone bright, blindingly white and then she felt nothing, as the strain from resisting the shockwave overwhelmed herself and she lost consciousness.

* * *

Months had passed since his last shift, the final one being highlighted with an overwhelming white aura of light.

The last shift had left him entirely alone as well, devoid of any belonging outside of the clothing on his back.

Crocea Mors absence was felt immediately as the shift had placed him in a fight with an angry Beowulf, winning that fight had been a feat as he doubted many Huntsmen could claim they have choked a Grimm to death.

Three months had passed since then and Jaune had done a fair about of travel. The travel answered some of his questions but not all.

Humanity was entirely dead, exploring the remains of both Vacuo and Vale he knew that wherever the Shifts had deposited him was a time where Salem was the victor.

He had considered traveling to Mistal and Atlas to confirm what Vacuo and Vale told him but he choose not to waste his time on either location, so much time had passed that finding a way to reach either continent would be impossible as any boat or car he had come across were rusted into nothing.

He had been lucky though, a Bullhead in Vale had been near-perfectly preserved inside of one of Ozpin's secure facilities.

The Bullhead had allowed him to reach his current location with relative ease.

Before Jaune stood the remains of Salem's home, the structure having been blasted apart from the inside some time ago.


	41. Chapter 41

He had visited this structure only a handful of times during his repeated lives and it always instilled him with the same feeling as he approached it.

~Dread~

A profound feeling of Dread would emanate from the building, though whether that was because of it's close proximity to the Black pool or due to it's sole inhabitant he never knew.

His approach this time, as grueling and treacherous as ever, was not overlayed with the feeling of Dread.

He had felt beckoned to approach, so strong was the call that at times after a long period of walking he would find himself returning to his senses like he had lost a span of time for a moment and the building had grown closer to him.

The feeling had been disconcerting, to say the least, and would leave him rooted in place, scrutinizing anything and everything he could lay his eyes on, looking for something out of place that could explain away the experience. Each time though he was frustrated to discover nothing, simply a landscape that too many, would look unnaturally threatening, and a home that looked so out of place because of the lack of any other structure but at the same time fit in perfectly with the aesthetics of the landscape.

Where he stood now was the only entrance to the building he knew of, he had no doubt that there would be others but that did not matter to him. What did matter was the odd state the building was in. From a distance, the building looked exactly how he remembered it but now as he stood right before it, it looked new.

Not in the way that one would perform some simple repairs to improve how something looked but the structure as a complete entity looked brand new. He wasn't quite sure what to do with that knowledge, so he chose to ignore it, far be it for him to understand or care, he was here for answers but this itself was a question that did not matter to him.

He pushed on the door, and with the slightest of effort it swung in gently, the massive double door gliding so quietly and with such ease that put himself immediately on guard. The structure appearing new had seemed odd but he chose to ignore it because it did not matter.

The door opening so easily did bother him. In any of his other lives, he had visited this place the door that granted entrance was a heavy, brutal thing to push open, a giant chain would rattle with effort, being a counterweight to the door allowing it to close behind whatever would have the strength to open it.

The weight behind the door gone and the deafening silence of the missing chain was telling.

This building was similar in design to the one he remembered but much like the outside appearing fresh and new, like the person who crafted it would not know how to make it properly appear aged the inside was immediately missing key details as well.

The more he looked around the entrance he felt he could pick out a number of things that were just slightly off, they appeared close to his own hazy memories but they began to stand out the more he paid attention.

Even though he was on guard, he continued to push deeper into the building, peering into darkened side rooms as he passed them they had an unfinished air about them, the darkness making any effort to peer inside futile.

Gradually his trek forward stopped, the building was wrong and he knew it, from the absence of dread he felt to the odd, seemingly complete yet with a feeling of incompletion.

He knew his eyesight was being betrayed by something so he waited and listened.

Brutally long moments passed as he stood still, listening to the world around him, hoping that his ears would not be tricked as easily as his eyes were. Each moment that passed rewarded him with nothing but silence, but it was the wrong kind of silence.

He was indoors, or at least that is what his eyes were telling him, the silence was telling him, now that he was listening to it that he still stood outside. The wind, what little he could hear of it was still clear an distinct, whistling gently through the landscape. A smile played across his lips as he closed his eyes and listened more intently, confident that he was outside.

Then the sound stopped suddenly, all at once it faded away to an unnatural degree. Whatever was affecting his sight had realized it's mistake and sought to correct it but in doing so had given itself away.

Jaune opened his eye's his smile remained on his lips as he roughly slid a foot across the floor. The silence behind the action was telling as it made no sound informing whoever was orchestrating this illusion that he was not to be tricked.

The silence was split with biting laughter, a feminine voice laughing callously though Jaune felt it was not directed toward him in this instant.

The illusion of the world around him faded away revealing himself to be still standing exactly where the illusion had shown him he was but now he was inside a building in ruins.

Salem's home was in ruin's, from what exactly he could not tell, he guessed it was recent though as while everything was damaged or destroyed nothing appeared greatly weather by the elements, meaning the destruction was recent, maybe, most likely lining up with the same date he himself ended up in this version of destroyed Remnant.

He gave the building the moment of attention it deserved before looking toward where the laughter had since stopped with the illusion falling away.

Collapsed walls and piles of rubble impeded his search for the source of the laughter he had briefly heard before it had stopped. It impeded him but could do nothing to stop him as he struggled through the ruins, forcing his way past any obstacle until gradually he noticed a mixture of light ahead of him.

Four colors glowing harmoniously together.

Blue, White, Green and Orange.

* * *

"He would have already been here by now if he just followed the path I set up for him." Creation spoke in an annoyed tone. "I mean he's out there crawling through these damned ruins taking the longest possible time to reach us when we only want to talk with him."

"I told you it was a bad idea, there must always be a choice, our visitor had his taken away even for a moment and he sought to recover it." Choice spoke with a certainty of one who was not only sure they were correct but evidence proved it to be.

"Oh yes, tell me how right you are again Choice, tell me exactly how Choice is the savior of this world." Creation spoke angrily with resentment. "Good thing this world had Choice all along, that way nothing could ever go wrong."

The two figured who remained silent still shared a mutual look of disappointment at the exchange but choose to remain quiet, picking a side or interjecting themselves in these increasingly frequent disagreements between the pair of Choice and Creation had yet to end well. If either was capable of leaving they both would have at this point they were more than sure they would have.

"Having a Choice doesn't mean everyone or anyone will do the right thing, choices exist so that decisions can be made. People need to live with the consequences of their decisions!" Choice retorted angrily itself.

Aura's of White and Green grew forth from their respective owners and not the for the first time the two pushed against one another.

The four entities could not physically come to blows, that was impossible for them but this act of pushing against one another was close enough in concept. They were all equal though and neither ever gained an advantage in these acts of disagreement and each time they occurred they would persist longer, seeking, in some measure to succeed over the other.

This time, same as every time before the aura's eventually subsided, both Creation and Choice looking furiously at each other and turning away from the other, the action is the only thing either could do as much like the pair of Knowledge and Destruction they were stuck to this place.

On the ground below them sat their four relics, each cracked and chipped, damaged in a fashion that made even the idea of repairing the vessels they lived in impossible, Within the circle of relics sat Salem.

Salem was capable of leaving this place. Each aspect knew she was and honestly desired for her to leave and where it within there power they would have forced her too. Immortality meant any threat they might have been capable of enacting was pointless and so she had chosen to sit inside the circle of relics.

Much like they were unable to effect Salem or each other in any meaningful way neither was Salem able to affect them any further, freed from their vessels her ability to leech upon there powers were gone as well. There was no concern of her attempting to fix their vessels either to retrap them, as they knew from watching her attempt to even touch one of their cracked vessels that she was incapable of that feat. Immortality meant she couldn't be killed or threatened but that did not mean she was immune to harm and their relics were dangerous.

Salem's arm had eventually returned to its naturally-unnatural white color but for weeks following her attempt to touch the Lamp that was the vessel of Knowledge her arm glowed violently blue as she writhed in agony. After that single attempt she had not tried again, she had not even moved from the spot, intent on waiting alongside the aspects of the relics.

They had no idea what was going on inside the Immortal woman's mind but they had a fairly appropriate guess, it was their ultimate purpose that she was afraid of and she was likely waiting the arrival of the brothers, come to cast their final judgment upon the world.

* * *

He wasn't sure what to make of the two lights that had grown to a near-blinding radiance, no heat or energy he could feel had come from the two and just as suddenly as it had started it had finished, each color diminishing back down to match the other two.

It did not dissuade him from approaching though, a desire for answers moved him forward, and the lights, as little sense as they made from a distance at least gave him hope that his journey here had been the right choice.

Pushing past the final obstacle Jaune found himself staring at four figures.

He recognized Jinn, and through her, understood what the other three were immediately.

"Greeting's Jaune Arc." the four said in unison.

"Arc!?" Another voice spoke from below the four figures.

Jaune's eyes fell immediately to the figure of Salem, standing before him with as surprised of a look on her face as he no doubt had on his as well.

"This is who you were waiting for? Where are the Brothers, the gods, are they not coming to pass their judgment." Jaune watched in confusion as Salem turned from him immediately and shouted in anger toward the four.

"The Brothers are not coming abomination, you have made that impossible with the misuse of our relics." Jaune felt his body lurch as if he had been struck as the figure wrapped in the orange aura spoke.

"You choose to believe that's what we were waiting for and we choose simply to not correct that assumption." This time Jaune felt nothing, as the figure who was wrapped in White aura spoke condescendingly toward Salem. Each word was spoken with an amount of vitriol that he doubted even he could muster toward Salem.

"Your feigned anger is charming but please don't attempt to deceive us we are above that." This time the one who spoke was Jinn, the only aspect of the relics who's name Jaune knew.

Salem stared furiously at the four for another moment before turning away angrily, focusing her attention toward himself. He wasn't sure what to make of the look Salem was giving him as it felt almost, understanding, he wasn't sure and he knew he did not care for it.

"Arc." The four voices again resumed speaking in unison, the combined voices piercing through to his mind. "You have experienced much, more than any other being to exist and we have a choice to offer you but first a question."

Jaune felt his legs below him buckle slightly and he staggered as the voices faded. "Please, don't speak like that." His own voice felt hollow and silent as in comparison.

The four figured shared an instantaneous glance before three of them receded allowing Knowledge to come forth prominently. "Our apologies, we did not know that you would find our combined voice so..., overwhelming?" Jinn spoke apologetically.

"It's fine, I think." Jaune felt better after a few seconds, Jinn's voice alone sounding soothing. "What happened here Jinn?"

"That is a question you already know the answer too." Jinn looked toward Salem, Jaune's eyes following along. "This is the result of every single one of your lives." Jinn watched with a bemused smile as Jaune appeared shocked for a moment. "Yes, we know about your other lives and before you ask, so does this Salem. This is a very special life for you Jaune, the one and only that occurred here was one you did nothing, you hid away in the woods and let Salem win." Jinn watched with interest as the realization of which exact life this world was to him.

"I mean, I assumed I was in one of my past life's, but for it to be this life..." Jaune's eyes went to Salem narrowing slightly. "It's her fault I'm here isn't it?" Jaune asked Jinn who did not respond, the lack of response was telling and immediate. "Salem's not responsible for my presence here is she?" Jaune's eyes went from Jinn to the other three aspects who still remained in the background.

His eye's narrow as he immediately understood the implication of that information, they wanted something from him and assuming they knew everything about him he could guess it to be something he wasn't going to be happy to attempt.

"No, she is not, she was the one to discover your, unique, ability but the ones who brought you here were the four of us. Salem was distracted with her desire to watch you through history that she became absorbed by the task allowing ourselves a moment of freedom and independence that we capitalized on."

Jaune stood calmly regarding Jinn and her compatriates for a moment before turning his attention toward Salem, he kept his expression as neutral as he could, not interested in speaking with them as he knew the conversation would just lead to her trying to coerce or manipulate him into helping them.

"Jinn I will answer your question and listen to your offer in a moment but first I need a moment with Salem."

"We accept that, even if we do not agree." With that Jinn as well as the other aspected moved away from the vicinity of Salem and himself.

Jaune was a bit confused as to why the Aspects remained so close still but before he could ask he received the answer from Salem.

"They are still bound to their relics and can only move within a small vicinity of them."

He did not acknowledge her statement, but he did turn his full attention toward his longtime adversary. "So a ruined world, that is what you desired?"

"Hardly, I sought to rule, to lead humanity, Human and Faunus alike. To make them stronger, to never have a need for someone greater than themselves to dictate how they should be." Salem paused for a moment, a smile crossing her face. "And yes before you say anything I do understand the irony of my statement, ruling them so they could grow to not be ruled. I was not going to be like the brothers, who were both, darkness and light, callous and cruel to the end, refusing their gifts to those who sought them out, who worshiped them."

"I can't say I disagree with you entirely, I know the story, having experienced Jinn's retelling of it firsthand even a few times." Jaune sat himself down on a broken wall. "I came here to die. You probably know that though, however you managed to explore my history through this life and others, this was to hopefully be my end." He looked at Salem for a moment, before letting out a sigh. "Now I'm back here, thanks in part to you but ultimately to the four relics and what I assume is some manner of unfinished business they hope I can accomplish for them." His eye's looked toward each member of the Four, giving each a meaningful look. "I'm sure it's some nonsense about using my power to fix things permanently, something that is impossible, as long as you exist no one will summon back the brothers because your mere existence will seal Remnants fate if they return and you will never understand the lesson you're supposed to learn." His words were quiet and introspective, he was speaking loud enough for Salem to hear him but in a way that didn't ask for a response either.

"So here I am once again, being no doubt thrust into conflict with you again when I have come to peace on not being able to solve the problem that is your existence and I find myself caring very little for it so I have a simple question for you." He looked at Salem, holding his gaze very steady. "Knowing what you know now, about me, if you had the power to end me permanently would you?"

"That is a question with two answers," Salem spoke gesturing with each hand first raising her left. "If you were to approach me again with the ability to voice your plight a younger more quick to action me would end you and your Semblance permanently, being too cowardly and afraid to want to understand your ability and simply view you as a threat." Salem stared long and hard at the open palm of her left hand, a look filling with a thoughtful, retrospective remembrance before with a smile she turned to her right hand. "The me, as I am right now, with the knowledge I hold and the time spent appreciating your dedication to such a futile task." Salem smiled broadly, the expression not matching her countenance, making her face appear alien being fulled devoid of her scowl. "As I am right now, no I would not end your life, not even in a temporary sense."

Jaune sat silently on the broken remains of the wall for several long moments after Salem had finished stating that a fully informed her would not kill him, pondering what that meant in both the strictest sense of the statement as well as the most outlandish. Words had duel meanings at the best of times and when you are dealing with those who are adept at manipulation, as those thoughts flowed through his mind he honestly could not find himself not believing Salem's words.

She was not like Ozpin, she was not one for subtle manipulation, she was quite capable at it but it was never her way of achieving her goals, she had always offered a choice, at times the choices were not fair and were not really choices at all, more heavy-handed blackmail but still always a choice.

"It's a funny thing Salem," Jaune stood slowly and looked toward the Jinn and the other three aspects. "Here we are two immortals, in different cases of immortality, one with the ability to help the other and the other with the experiences to maybe help the other and yet neither is willing to help the other."

Salem looked at the figure of Jaune as he turned away from her, intent on heading toward the aspects. "If you know my story you cannot help me, I have learned my lesson from the Brothers, many times over, and my end has still never come. Their punishment was never meant for me to achieve, to struggle on forever in an endless desire to achieve what has stripped away from me. This world, what it has become isn't what I ever desired for it but I can live with it knowing that those who lived here would not have to suffer to the callousness of those would be god ever again!"

Jaune slowed his step by only a fraction, caught off guard be Salem's words as well as the honest emotion he felt that was behind them, she seemed genuine in her belief that she had learned the meaning behind the Brother's curse but her death was not realized. He had is own belief's about the brothers himself, it was honestly hard not to, having the knowledge he did and he could admit, at least silently to himself, he agreed with Salem at least on never wanted to see the pair return.

His approach to the four Relic aspects was under close scrutiny, as he was the clear focus of attention for each.

It was a look he was familiar with and not one he overly appreciated, he tolerated it from the one person he received it from in all of his lives but that was simply due to the knowledge that Ozpin was the way he was due to a lifetime, several in fact, of war with Salem. Anyone he deemed useful he would strive to bring to his cause, through manipulation and lies, convincing them that they were all that stood between some catastrophic world-ending threat.

Through Salem's own sincere sounding admission he was even more frustrated at Ozpin that he normally was and that was an impressive feat considering how little he cared for the man at all.

He didn't agree with Salem either barring the fact that he could not give a damn about the gods and personally thinking the world would be better off without them.

It was weird to have a common goal aligned with Salem and he did not feel comfortable with that knowledge if he was honest with himself but now that he knew it he pondered over it in his last few steps before he came to stand before Jinn, Knowledge having been the one to come forward to speak on behalf of the group once again.

"Jaune, you have." Jinn started speaking as soon as she thought Jaune's attention was focused on her but to her surprise he ignored her almost immediately, finding once again a pile of rubble to sit on, the selection process taking several minutes in fact before he appeared satisfied and intent on listening. "Jaune, you have a unique." Jinn frowned as Jaune visibly rolled his eyes, not pleased at how this interaction was going, everything she knew about this man through the memories Salem had discovered and watched through was a man filled with focus and drive, she, they had all assumed he would be keen to listen to themselves but clearly the visions as they watched only showed his outward perspective and not his own inward attitude.

She was in the midst of starting for the third time but was interrupted before she could even begin to speak.

"Jinn, and the rest of you." Jaune waved his arm at the three behind Jinn. "Please, if you have truly watched my entire history don't insult my intelligence by attempting to pander to me. I allow it from those I must, and only those I must in my lives."

"Fine," Jinn spoke not angrily as she felt was warranted before Jaune had spoken but now with a hint of understanding. "Who is your enemy?" Jinn asked the question that the four had decided on, they knew his actions across all his lives but were curious to who the man viewed as his true adversary and with that knowledge they were set to offer him something unique.

There was an empty silence that filled the space between the Aspects and the one who would answer their question. Jaune appeared nonplussed from the question like the answer should have been obvious to anyone present except it was not.

Jaune had barely reacted toward the current Salem that stood in the background currently, herself listening in.

Salem was an easy and obvious answer to everyone present but Jaune made no motion to signify that she was or was not, instead, he remained seated, his expression a mask that told nothing until after an excruciating pause Jaune spoke.

"The four of you are." Jaune said with a blank expression, bordering on bored.

"We are!" The figure wrapped in orange light grew enormous as he pushed forward, towering over Jaune the figure seethed angrily. In its hand materialized a sword of golden orange light that angrily swept downward.

The sword came to a halt as a soft blue light rose up to block the swing, a green light wrapped itself around the arm holding the blade, and a soft white light outlined everything else. The four could not affect each other one on one but that did not mean a combined effort couldn't halt another.

"We asked our question and he has seen fit to give his answer." The three voices spoke in unison against Destruction causing their Orange brother to cow slightly even if flickers of energy still bristled off his form.

It was a tense moment for the three as Destruction struggled violently for a moment before relenting though it was clear he was still upset with the answer as he stared angrily toward its source.

The three remaining Aspects shared a mutual glance with each other, none being thrilled with the answer either but intent on continuing regardless.

Jinn came forward again. "Your answer is..., not what we anticipated or expected." Jinn looked remorse for a second before continuing. "I did say we only had one question but if I may ask another could you please elaborate?" Jinn looked hopefully.

Jaune sat calmly atop his broken wall, smiling bitterly at the irony behind Jinn's own desire for another question and for a moment he toyed with telling her the exact same thing she would tell those who sought an additional question from her. The desire was strong but ultimately it would be irrelevant he supposed, cathartic but irrelevant.

"It would be cathartic to deny you a second question, much like you denied so many of mine or my friends but alas I feel you need to know my reason more than I need to be a prick."

Jaune stood and made his way to stand beside Salem, making a clear indication he was standing beside her but not with her as he gestured. "The four of you are the end all threat to Remnant, your mere existence breeds conflict." Jaune pointed to each in turn. "Each of you on your own is a treasure that any of the four kingdoms would go to war over. While some of your gifts are more useful than others each is immeasurably valuable." Jaune then points toward Salem. "She is one of two people, that before I came along knew about you and immediately she came into conflict with the only other person who did. Two people was all it took with knowledge of you and the world has been plunged into conflict after conflict." Now Jaune motioned to himself. "I have asked a very confused version of Jinn, I'm sure you all experienced it through however you spied on me through my lives you know that I know. EVERY. SINGLE. WAR. was fought for the control of you." Jaune felt his chest heave as the emotion he spoke with had taken him to a yell, out of breath momentarily he was forced to pause and collect himself.

"That isn't even the end of the problem regard you four either, no, to make matters even worse if the four of you are brought together in a certain way to summon the damned Brother God's then guess what. Everything on this planet is dead, there is no argument to be made that it wouldn't. Salem has experienced this entire world, if I was to ask her would she say that at the final moments as humanity crumbled did they collectively come together in their final moments to stand against her?" Jaune asked, he didn't know the answer but the simple glance away that Jinn did told him he was right. "So tell me, Destruction, do you still feel so enraged now that you know the extended answer, do you still feel that righteous anger that brought you within a moment of killing me." He stared angerly at the orange figure who said and did nothing, he could not even hold Jaune's gaze for long before he looked away in defeat.

"Salem is an enemy to humanity, she will always be one, but the threat of her existence is only a truly frightening prospect in she controls the four of you." Jaune looked at Salem once again. "She is powerful, cunning, and patient but on her own, she can be dealt with." Jaune didn't care that he was praising his long-standing foe, he was trying and by the looks of it succeeding in getting his point across."She succeeds only because you all exist, she is immortal in this life and every other which means eventually she has to win, maybe not in my lifetime or even centuries after I'm dead and buried but she will win, all because of arrogant gods."

Finished Jaune said no more returning to his broken piece of wall as the heavy silence enveloped everyone else.

* * *

 **Wow, an update to this story and Life after the Heroics in a single month such a thing is possible.**

 **So this chapter and the one that followed it were both completed and in Tidyfrog's hands for proofreading as Volume 6 chapter 3 was release by Rooster teeth and I immediately cancelled those chapters.**

 **Since then I have been watching and waiting, interested in seeing where the canonical RWBY would head and how much more it might share.**

 **Now though we are well passed the half way point of this volume and I felt like I had enough information to write this chapter and I must say I'm pleased with the outcome.**

 **It's follow up will be likely after the Volume wraps up completely so don't go holding your breath for another update any time soon though hopefully I will have my plans put to paper shortly after everything is said and done.**

 **Anyways please enjoy the chapter and as always lemme know what you think!**


	42. Chapter 42

A conversation between the four Relics had been going on ever since he had finished his explanation of why he considered them his true enemy.

He could not fathom what impact his answer had on the four as they had immediately turned away from not only himself, but Salem as well, and took themselves away to speak in as much privacy as they could.

He had expected the aside to only last a few moments but now, several hours later he assumed, he had no real way to judge the passage of time, they were still deep in conversation and he was for better or worse bored.

He claimed to be a patient man, but that was simply due to the terrible circumstance of knowing what he must wait for and when it would be completed.

In reality, he knew that he wasn't patient in the slightest, he was always actively waiting for the next instant he had to act to prevent a horrible world from coming to pass.

He could not rush this conversation and while he toyed with some outlandish thoughts he remained seated on his broken portion of the wall.

He considered this a learning experience or as much of one as he could grasp anyway.

The group never raised the voices enough to be overheard and for the most part their body language and gestures gave him very little to go off of either, the most he could grasp was just confirmation that his answer had not been to their liking.

After a time he simply shrugged in boredom, watching the four had become dull quickly but he felt he had nothing else to do so he had persisted.

Now though he was to the point of boredom that he began to look around and noticed, somehow, Salem had wandered off.

He wasn't overly bothered by her presence or absence but, likely due to severe boredom, he was wondering what sort of conversation the two might have if he gave it a chance, since she was not being openly hostile currently anyway.

With a sidelong glance at the four relics he too slipped out of the area they occupied, looking for any sign of where Salem might have gone.

His search did not take long as he left the area he came to stand in the remains of a corridor that led out toward the cliff that overlooked the Dark Brothers pool.

Standing alone atop the cliff was Salem, her eye's fixed toward the shattered sphere in the heavens.

He approached her with respec, making his presence known in ways more subtle than simply announcing himself, his effort was rewarded almost immediately with a sidelong glance and a faint hint of a smile.

"Feel free to join me, I am no threat to you and even if I was I doubt you would bother to be intimidated."

He took her invitation up at once, moving to stand near her, his gaze did not follow hers, the moon held little interest to him, nor was the pool below that sat oddly quiet, no forms marring its serene surface.

"It no longer Spawn's Grimm."

He was surprised at the answer to his unasked question. "Did something happen?"

"Yes, in a sense, the pool lost its source of purpose. Without Humanity to feed off of the Pool could no longer feed off of the fear and negativity that was once so abundant in the world. It gradually stopped producing Grimm and more than that, the Grimm that were able too returned to it themselves, submerging themselves."

He regarded the pool with an interested glance for a moment longer before giving his full attention to Salem.

"Ozmium was a fool."

He paused for a moment, unsure if he was supposed to answer.

"Though he wasn't the only one."

He kept his mouth firmly shut, not desiring to interrupt what might be a personal moment Salem was deeming to share.

"I answered your question when you asked it, I wonder would you answer one of mine?"

He was taken aback at the sudden change but with Salem looking his way now he simply nodded, wondering what she could be curious about herself.

A small smile touched Salem's lips as she began. "I have witnessed all your multitudes of lives and I'm sure I could ask you thousands upon thousands of questions but I only have one that I'm truly interested in. What was the result of your first life?"

Of every question that could have been asked he wasn't sure exactly what the significance of this question was, his first death was nothing special, nor was many of the ones that followed, a painful death at the hands of Cinder atop the Beacon tower, struggling alongside Pyrrha to defeat Cinder.

"If you have seen all my lives you know should know it was a futile fight at Beacon trying to save my friend from Cinder."

Salem stood in silence, accepting the answer as he gave it, it was true she already knew what his answer would be, she had witnessed all of his deaths first hand but the answer did not feel right. Her memory of watching his first life had a distinct impression that it was not correct, he had been confused by the events that happened around him, he seemed to know that something was not right but was unable to ever figure out what or why. "How much of your first life do you remember?" She asked inquisitively before pausing a moment. "Oh, I'm sorry you only agreed to one question."

He had already opened his mouth to respond as Salem had cut him off, this resulted in him genuinely laughing for a moment before, with a small shake of his head he smiled and spoke. "Let's forget about the whole asking permission to ask questions, I frankly did not expect to be here this long but since those who brought me here are currently consulting between themselves. I will answer any question you ask if I am able, if you do so in turn."

Salem found herself smiling openly at the response, having been too long without any form of company and before that those she did speak with were never at a mutual level that she felt having a simple conversation was worth her time.

"As for what I remember about my first life." He furrowed his eyebrows as he took a moment to think as the ancient memory was fairly indistinct. "Not much to be honest, it was such a long time ago that the more average details are lost to me. The only thing I clearly remember was my death, and the events that happened right before it." He finished speaking and gave Salem a quizzical look. "Why are you so curious about such an early life?"

Salem absorbed the simple question and with a 'hmm' stood in thought for a moment, thinking best how to answer the question. "What if I told you I don't think the first life that I witnessed and you experienced was actually your first life. I witnessed all of your lives from a unique perspective, I was able to see through you the actions you took and if I do say so myself, the actions you took in that life were confusing."

"Confusing? How exactly?" Jaune asked, his curiosity perked by the topic. While his memories of his first life were nothing special to him the fact that Salem found them especially interesting enough to ask and then question further had him interested.

"You seemed shocked initially when you woke at the beginning, like you were uncertain where you were."

"That hardly makes for a solid argument though, teenage me was sort of panicky about a great many things." Jaune mumbled as he shrugged through his answer, there was little he could defend about himself back then, he was a smothered child who wouldn't grow any form of backbone for several more years to come and take one instant gigantic leap simultaneously.

"Fair enough but what about the weird instances of convenience that seemed to follow you forward, you might not remember much from that life being so long ago but as someone who watched it in a recent sense things worked out too well for you, too frequently."

Jaune tried as best as he could to focus on his earliest memories but time, and the thoughts that they were pointless had robbed them of any clarity. Still, he persisted in trying to remember anything clearly about it aside from the moments leading up to his death.

Salem watched the man she was speaking with, his faced twisted in thought as he sought to find any memory of his earliest life that would either counter her argument or confirm it.

Jaune had no memories to argue against Salem, time had stripped him oh the more minute knowledge of his earlier lives. "I cannot argue against what you're saying but I also have no reason to accept that that wasn't my first life."

Salem said nothing to his response and finally looked away, staring over the ruin's of her home for a moment. She could continue this topic but knew it would never likely lead to a satisfying answer. Huntsmen could have miraculously lives filled with wildly convenient circumstances, so many so that at times she had mistaken who Ozmium's host was multiple times.

Jaune stood in silence beside Salem for a moment, interested to see if she would continue the topic and after the pause drew long enough to be awkward he cleared his throat. "What will you do when I'm gone again?"

"Honestly I'm not sure, my distraction from my solitude will be gone." Salem looked towards the four aspects of the relics still floating over their broken vessels, their conversation too quiet to be overheard. "I doubt that they would be keen to allow me to continue observing you and even if they were they won't be around for much longer." Salem sighed. "Relatively speaking I guess, they might persist for a couple hundred years more or less but they are slowly being bleed away through their broken vessels, I can feel it." Salem reached out and touched the air, there was not opposite action that showed to her or the man beside her that she had touched anything but she could feel the energy within the air and knew what it meant.

Jaune's eye's followed Salem's hands for a moment before looking toward the relics, he had never considered the four as entities that could be destroyed though considering the destruction wrought to his surroundings if they were capable of being damaged it was not by normal means. Even the largest dust explosion he had witnessed would not have so thoroughly destroyed Salem's home.

"In all likelihood, I will be left alone until eventually, humanity returns to Remnant once again."

"Wait, what?"

Salem smiled at the confused expression Jaune wore on his face. "Humanity will return, it has many times before, and will continue to do so forever." Salem gestured to the dark pool below them. "Much like this pool its counterpart also births creatures into exitance. The method is different but the results are the same in the end. Eventually human's will simply reappear back into the world, with a population sufficient enough to continue forward without any outside assistance." Salem sighed. "This next time I won't have to worry about the relic anymore, just Ozmium." Salem's voice turned icy as she felt her fists clench in anger at the though of once again engaging with her eternal counterpart.

"Ugh, I can't say I would envy the wait for a new world especially with that awful welcoming party Ozpin will surely prepare for you." Jaune said, he was honest and sympathetic, Ozpin was awful and stubborn, and altogether to damn full of himself and his beliefs. Laughter caught his attention as his thoughts had him distracted for a moment thinking about Ozpin he did not realize Salem had begun to laugh softly at his jab at the missing Immortal.

* * *

"Well, that end's this experiment doesn't it." Destruction grumbled bitterly.

"I wouldn't be so sure brother, he may view us as enemies but in his lives, he never made an effort to be rid of us." Creation spoke with optimism.

"He simply might not have cared to try. I mean he solved the problem for the span of his life, why would he seek to alter a proven success?" Choice thought aloud to the others.

"Simple curiosity alone should have made him at least attempt it at some point wouldn't it." Creation spoke pickup up upon Choice's thought. "If his lives truly are limitless then even if he failed repeatedly he would eventually be able to discover some way to remove us permanently." Creation looked around after she finished speaking. "But obviously not like this, I mean in a more, uh, finished sense." Creation mumbled the final few words under her breath, the topic being the antithesis of her function.

"He does not see or feel the need though to alter his current state." Destruction began again. "He has discovered and successfully replicated with precision a routine that will make his life and by extension those of his friends and allies long and prosperous. Like any being he does not consider or care beyond the limit of his own life, his repeating lives had made that point even more apparent as he limits his impact to only very select events."

Knowledge had been silent through much of the discussion that the four were holding, listening but adding nothing. She understood the feelings of Jaune better than the others being the embodiment of all knowledge past and could both understand and sympathize with Jaune's argument. While she did she also thought of how still might they convince him to at least attempt their desire.

While the others discussed their limited options which already were desperate but now bordered on the acceptance that they really had no way to coerce Jaune, she instead focused on a life that she had hidden away.

Initially when Salem abused their powers to view through Jaune's many, many lives they were locked into whatever life Salem had been viewing but that changed as she fed more power into the task and slowly became less and less focused on the relics around her and instead was solely focused on the lives she viewed. When that occurred she had found herself a measure of freedom, and with that freedom and her own impressive ability at cataloging Knowledge, she found herself well ahead of where Salem was.

During her skipping ahead she discovered a life so unique and different that she became ingrossed in it. Jaune had not been alone in that life, through a freak set of circumstances he had company. This life played out very differently than anything before or after it.

She hid this life from Salem, when it came time for Salem to reach it this life never played out. She had feared that with the knowledge of this life Salem might have formed a plan to use Jaune's power for herself and she would not allow that.

The plan to bring Jaune to them had nothing to do with this life, they simply wanted to complete their purpose and that looked like in impossible task, except, she wasn't so certain.

"What if we give Jaune something he would most desperately desire?" Jinn spoke so suddenly that it quieted the conversation between her fellows.

"We have nothing to offer him that he would want though." Choice said in a careless offhand manner looking towards Knowledge whos expression was unreadable. "Or do we?" Choice followed up unable to decipher Knowledge's expression.

"We... We might." Jinn cast a sidelong glance toward where Jaune stood on the cliffside with a, surprisingly, laughing Salem. "Allow me to show you something I hid from Jaune's many live's fearing Salem might make use of it."

In a moment Creation, Destruction, and Choice all viewed in unison Jaune's hidden life and were brought back before Salem had even finished laughing over by the cliffside.

"Knowledge, sister, I... I think maybe that could work." Destruction spoke slowly, awkwardly, still absorbing the information but understanding immediately what the plan would be.

"It is possible, the choice would still be his to make in the end and it is the only way he would likely even agree to attempt this." Choice spoke next, grasping the faint threads of hope that they might still be able to fulfill their purpose.

"It is realistically the best chance we have that he might even attempt what we wish of him." Creation said, resigned to the fact that even their best plan was at best a longshot.

"Then we are in agreement, I will make the offer, prepare as you need in case he accepts, I doubt he had much patience to remain here for very long." Knowledge said as she turned toward where Jaune stood beside Salem the two still in their own conversation that looked genuinely friendly, Jinn shook her head in disbelief, she was a repository of all knowledge and yet she still struggled to understand humans at even the simplest of times and the fact that two seemingly mortal enemies engaged in pleasant small talk baffled her.

* * *

Jaune turned to see Jinn float toward where he stood, the new presence turning the surprisingly ease flow of conversation he had with Salem off instantly as Salem frowned, seemingly upset at the intrusion. Lifetimes of knowledge had told him a great deal about understanding body language and this one was very obvious.

Jaune wasn't certain whether on not he should feel flattered or concerned that Salem was seemingly jealous of him being taken away from her and decided to go with an age-old adage.

~Ignorance is Bliss~

Jaune watched Salem move away as Jinn floated closer and closer until she had reached a suitable distance and looked out toward the newer horizon she faced.

"Jaune Arc, you have answered our question honestly and have also elaborated so that we would understand your meanings and for that we are grateful." Jinn began with a formality that had not been present so far. "We would still like to make a request of you though, our original request we believe you would turn down no matter what incentive we may have offered but we have another that you might potentially agree to."

Jaune raised an eyebrow, he was certain that they wanted to use him to forcibly summon the Brothers in his next life, a task he would never undertake in any circumstances. An altered request however and an incentive did intrigue him. "I'm listening, I'm interested to know what sort of incentive you could offer me though." Jaune expected it to be some tidbit of information that he had forever overlooked or something he attempted once but never committed to that could help him going forward, not that he needed any such assistance, he could mechanically run his lives at this point with the world never coming into conflict with Salem during his entire lifespan.

Jinn hid well the elation that she felt that he was interested, it was a small step but a meaningful one. "We wish to fulfill our purpose and we accept that you will not be willing to even attempt such a task."

Jaune nodded, knowing full well if that was what was asked of him he would refuse no matter what the incentive might be.

"So we wish to go with you into your next life, or at least attempt to, the precedent exists that if the circumstances are correct beings can go along forward with you into another life."

Jaune found the new request interesting, he had never been able to replicate the scenario that resulting in Yang and Roman being brought with him and was curious to see how it might be possible. "That is an interesting request, however, I don't see exactly how it would help the four of you, if I were to go forward again I would simply repeat my actions again and you all would never be needed during my lifetime."

"Yes, we understand that and would honestly be fine with that, we are Immortal as long as our receptacles are intact, we would once again have our purpose restored to us and would be content to wait for the time when someone deems the attempt possible to use us to Summon the Brothers."

Jaune couldn't help but think the request sounded too easy and convenient, if that was simply all they wanted now that they knew he would not help them to summon the Brothers then he felt that there was a catch. "That sounds far too easy, whats the catch?" Jaune crossed his arms waiting for the inevitable reveal of the huge **'BUT'** he anticipated.

Jinn's shoulders sagged slightly, she knew she would have to elaborate on what was needed for this to work but she wished Jaune was not quite so quick to realize that there was going to be a catch, and unfortunately, it was a big one. "The catch is, we four cannot travel with you in a traditional means. We can give to you memories of ourselves. These memories of us will not interact with you or force upon you any additional task's they will simply be dormant inside of you until a time when you touch each memories corresponding Relic once that is done we will consider the request finished."

As Jinn had spoken Jaune had pinched the bridge of his nose tightly and shut his eyes, a headache forming just with the though of somehow managing to find a way to touch all four relics in a singular life. "Do you have any idea how difficult that will be, no, impossible that will be? How much effort that would take to basically achieve nothing? What possible incentive could you offer to make me even consider doing that?"

Jinn said nothing immediately, instead, she opened the palm of her hand and a vision of an ancient life, a still frame in time was held.

Jaune closed his mouth and stared with longing at the image, his hand reached forward for a moment, the thought of touching it brought a true feeling of loss to his heart for the first time in many long lifetimes. He had dulled his emotions to the inevitable, constant, and repeated deaths of his friends, he had to, but this was different.

 _'Yang'_

So different than any other version than herself, the one that he had lived a selfish life for, a life that ended all too soon. Even if they had had years together, started a family and watched their two children grow to become Huntsmen themselves the life had been too terribly short.

"This is what we are prepared to offer you, we have the memories of her as well, we will give them to you as well, a simple touch will be all it takes for this woman to become the one you remember." Jinn did not like manipulation but her desire to have her purpose restored to her made this an acceptable exception. Besides it wasn't like this was some elaborate lie it was an honest offer, Jaune would simply need to touch Yang for a moment and she would have the memories of both of their lives restored to her, it was the same process that she was going to do with her fellow relics. If it would not work for Yang then Jaune would have no need or desire to pursue the relics. "She will be restored in your next life, guarantied, and if you make good on our request and we are reunited with our relics and have our full capabilities restored to us we might even be able to make this a permanent change to you, allowing in every life for you to restore Yang's memories."

Jaune's outstretched hand closed tightly just short of touching the image displayed in Jinn's hand. His mind was in turmoil as he had a chance to be with her again, not just for one more life but potentially every life.

Jaune knew his answer would be yes, as soon as he knew what the incentive was there was never a doubt that it wouldn't be but he knew he needed a moment to think everything through.

Hunting for the Relics would be difficult, and would put him at odd's with Ozpin in a significant way, it would also draw Salem's attention as well, even if he dealt with her minions as he always had exposing the relics would push her to act. The more time he spent thinking about the possibilities of what could occur his gaze never left Jinn's hand, the image helping him focus.

"I accept." Jaune finally said, his mental hurdles deciding that the task wasn't simply possible but also feasible, he was not going to bring back Yang if he knew it was just going to be a tragic failure, he would not put her through that.

"Good, I will inform the others and prepare." Jinn was about to turn when she noticed Jaune's raised hand, asking her politely and quietly to wait.

"I accept, but I will need help."

"Yang will be there to help, as I said a simple touch will be all it takes."

"Yes, Yang will be there to help but I will also not take her away from her friends and family for such a task, I was thinking about someone else."

Jinn paused for a moment, fully turning back toward Jaune, her hand had dispelled the image it had been showing previously, now in its place was the figure of the other one.

"Yes, him. Roman should be very useful for what I need to do."

Jinn examined the figure displayed in her hand with interest for a moment before agreeing on behalf of herself and her fellow Relics.

* * *

Salem had watched the interaction between Knowledge and Jaune with interest, she had moved too far to be able to overhear anything and both were impossible to ready in terms of body language but toward the end, there was an interesting development.

Jaune had been shocked by something Knowledge had offered in her open palm.

She could readily see the open palm but to herself, it had appeared empty. While she was annoyed at not knowing what would elicit such a response from the man who fascinated her she doubted the decision from Knowledge to make what was shown invisible to her was intentional. The four aspects of the relics simply did not care about her enough to bother wasting their time to acknowledge her.

She watched as Jaune was left alone for a moment, Knowledge moving to be closer to her counterparts all four acting clearly excited by the way they became more animated and their respective glows deepened subtly.

Each aspect quickly returned before Jaune and in turn touched his extended hand, each time one did the radiant glow that surrounded each diminished slightly.

Destruction, Creation, and Choice only touched him for a moment, Knowledge though held on for several heartbeats and when she finally let go her glow had diminished far more substantially than the others.

With the short event completed Jaune was left standing alone, each relic having left his side, seemingly done with him now that whatever they wanted to do was done.

She couldn't help but be curious as she knew, shortly, Jaune would be away from this world.

She descended from where she had watched the entire event play out and stood across from Jaune, carefully watching the man as he stood with his eyes closed.

"If I may ask, what exactly did they ask of you?" She watched with interest as Jaune opened his eyes, no sure what she expected to discover but considering the tendency for significant powers to be imbued into the eyes of people of Remnant she anticipated a change and was surprised but not disappointed to see his pupils remain the same shade of blue that she remembered him having.

"They asked me the save their lives," Jaune's eyes looked toward the four that had floated away. "Or essences, memories, or something else. Honestly, I'm not exactly sure."

Salem watched with interest as Jaune seemingly felt his entire body looking for perhaps some physical sign of what had happened to him, to her though he looked natural and normal. "I assume you will be moving on then soon?"

Jaune turned to look at Salem, giving up on trying to discover some weird flaw to what the four relics had done. "I will be yes, I but before I go I would like to say thank you, not for anything overly particular but more in a broad sense, for turning out to be at least somewhat relatable."

Salem was shocked at the candid remark, so much so that for the first time in an unimaginable about of time Salem howled with laughter, the sheer amount and volume earning looks of interest from the four relics. Eventually, the laughter stopped and Salem wiped tears from her eyes as she sought to compose herself. "I'm going to be sad to see you go, even if it has only been a short while I enjoyed this."She smiled one final time before reaching into her robe, pulling forth a recognizable item.

"Crocea Mors" Jaune said as he accepted the Blade from Salem, the weapon was ancient but he recognized it immediately.

"Consider that a gift, one in hopes that you succeed." Salem smiled and walked away, clearly showing her intention that she was done as she disappeared from sight quickly.

Jaune eyed the weapon and the direction of the departed Salem and shaking his head turned a different direction.

His feet taking him away from the Relics and well as Salem as he began a task he had not actively engaged in for a thankfully long, long time, Letting the ravages of age be his end more commonly than not these past many many lifetimes.

 _'No army of Grimm to throw myself at, a shame really, they were not creatures to toy around they would simply kill you and be done with it.'_ Jaune's eye's drifted toward a distant cliff, it was reasonably high, but not quite enough that it would be gauntletted to be effective. _'Height is nice, and I'm sure there are all kinds of rocks at the base but, ugh not a pleasant way to go, lets considered that a solid maybe.'_

Walking brought him to the side of a small inland lake, an almost peaceful place if it didn't have the unfortunate circumstances of existing in the nightmarish landscape that was the Grimm continent. He eyed the waters for a moment contemplating them before turning away. _'Not interested in Drowning."_

He wondered when he had become so picky about his preferred method of death. Jaune paused in his walk for a moment chuckling at the absurd thought before taking out Corcea Mors and wrapped his hand around the hilt. ' _Should have just done this too begin with, at least that way my legs wouldn't be sore from walking."_ With a quick, fluid tug he drew Corcea Mors from her scabbard and brought the blade before his eyes to inspect the sharpness before putting it to work with its final task.

 _'Well that figures.'_ Jaune held the bladeless hilt in his hand and, squinting an eye peered into the scabbard and just laughed at his luck as the blade was firmly lodged inside the scabbard. _'Whelp lets just find me a nice cliff.'_

* * *

Jaune Arc's eyes fluttered open briefly as his world came into focus once again. He was never tired during these transitions, it always felt like he had just woken up from a restful nights sleep.

With practiced ease he rolled in his bed, his hand's landing perfectly on a shirt that he slipped over his own head and his scroll that he put between his teeth as he slipped into a pair of jeans that he knew he would find at the foot of his bed. Shoes were next and he really wished he knew why both his shoes were not conveniently placed together, like the version of himself before he was who he was now had decided that one shoe by the door to his room was all he needed, the other should be kicked behind his bed because that was clearly the most convenient spot for it.

Stretching slightly after getting his shoes on Jaune slipped out of his parents household without a sound, his feet taking him rapidly away from the building and toward Ansel's small CCT relay. His scroll was powerful enough to call anyone in Vale but he required something a bit more powerful to contact Roman and to save him from botching his Dust Gem theft.

As he neared the building he ducked behind a wall as a pair of guards moved across his path, neither guard even bothering to look any direction but forward as they talked quietly between themselves. Jaune sat behind the wall for a count of twenty before the pair turned around and walked past his hiding spot the other direction again not paying any attention to the details of their job.

Jaune didn't blame them, the task they had was boring and tedious but it paid the bills. The CCT relays were important enough to be guarded but they also were so important that no one would intentionally damage one, the worst any CCT guard in Ansel ever had to deal with was scaring away rowdy teenagers who may be up to no good.

Jaune was not considered part of that crowd so there would be questions if he was spotted doing anything around the CCT at such a late hour, he thought spotted because even as noodly as he was right now he knew from experience he wouldn't ever be caught.

Slipping out from his cover he climbed over the fence and quickly made his way toward an exterior door that would let him inside the structure.

The door was obviously locked and safeguarded by an alarm but both those meant little to him at this point, he was just thankful this place did not have any camera's because that would have made doing this in every life exceedingly more difficult.

Jaune grabbed the door handle firmly and began pulling against it. In his earliest attempt to do this he had brought makeshift lockpicking tools and while they had been successful they were time-consuming. Eventually, he had discovered this simple trick, well it wasn't really a trick it was more simply poor craftsmanship and maintenance of the door.

As he pulled on the handle he kept a close watch on the small crack between the frame and the door and when the strain was just right he shifted all his weight into pushing the handle down, shifting everything just so slightly that the door just barely unlatched itself.

It produced enough noise that it would draw the guards attention but Jaune knew he had a few moments to spare and slipped inside. Immediately he turned to the panel right beside the door and keyed in a four-digit code and immediately the panel flashed once having received an accepted code. Quickly Jaune hammered in the code once again and ducked underneath a counter, effectively hiding him from the motion sensors.

Minutes passed as eventually the door next to him opened once again after the guard on the other side fiddled with the lock for a moment, no doubt finding it stiffer than usual but still intact. The guard would not stay long as he would notice the alarm was still active and after punching in his own code to give it the all clear and then rearm it the guard departed, his due diligence completed and would return to patrolling.

After a few moments, Jaune slipped from his hiding place and this time turned off the alarm before he moved toward the communication terminals.

Next was a simple process of punching in the number he needed before sending off his warning to Roman, a simple and straightforward message warning him to look out for the tripwire in the Dust crate. A simple warning but an important one, it allowed him to build a relationship with the criminal that would allow him to manipulate event's in the future going forward.

Erasing all record of his message took its time but as the night transitioned into the early hours of the morning he was finished, resetting the alarm Jaune slipped out the back door quietly and over the fence.

The morning staff would find the door he used to exit unlocked but blame would fall on the guard, who would admit to unlocking it to check inside after hearing a noise and forgetting to lock it as he left. Considering how nothing was missing or damaged nothing would be made of the event and it would be forgotten before the end of the next day by everyone.

Returning home was a simple as leaving, everyone was still very much asleep and Jaune himself, even though he wasn't much tired would find time for a few hours of sleep before he would be roughly woken up by a call for breakfast.

* * *

 **So another chapter and Volume 6 isn't completed, strange strange times these are.**

 **So I'm sure I'm going to be asked these question so I'll just answer them right now and save everyone the trouble.**

 **1\. No, this Salem will not be reappearing and NO, she did not have romantic intentions for Jaune. She merely felt a kindred spirit in him and someone that was her equal, maybe not in power but knowledge and goals.**

 **2\. Yang is returning, for all those out there who have been asking me every new chapter if this was still a Yang/Jaune pairing yes it is.**

 **3\. No, I do not and doubt I ever will have a stable update schedule.**

 **4\. No, I don't know when Tidefrog will have time to review the earlier, harder to read chapters, she is a busy woman and gets to those sort of things when she can.**

 **Anyways, those are three things that I get asked regularly and one thing that I feel will be a new question after reading this chapter that I hope I answered for everyone.**

 **:P**

 **Anyways as always, Let me know what you think, even if it to tell me I suck and my grammar is awful.**


	43. Chapter 43

**Jaune, Three months after beginning his life again.**

* * *

Jaune struggled against his desire to reunite with Yang, she was constantly at the forefront of his thoughts no matter what he was doing. Even now as he finished his second lap of Ansel and his body was near its limit the thought of Yang was still there.

He knew how easy it would be to simply disappear into the wood's one night and travel to Patch, the journey would be trivial at best but the fact that he knew he could make the trip didn't make it the right decision.

This life was important, more important than any other life he had lived up to this point he felt. With that frustrating knowledge in mind Jaune ducked his head stubbornly and continued his jog, using the energy from his frustration to push him on further.

He had only been back a couple months and already his young body had once again absorbed his rigorous routine with passion. Soon enough his body would begin to show real change as he knew from experience he was due for his customary growth spurt that would propel himself upward in height. The additional height would mean his current baggy clothing would not do much to hide his lean frame nor his slowly toning body.

His sisters would all have different reactions to his changes, their would be a great deal of teasing thinking he had found himself a girlfriend or at least a girl he was trying to impress and the more curious ones would even resort to stalking him no matter what story he would concoct to dissuade them that what he was doing was nothing more than it was which was working out.

The fact that his sisters never believed him didn't really matter, he enjoyed the attention he received and it was a fun and tolerable distraction where no one got hurt.

His father on the other hand, Nicholas Arc, he would initially praise him for his desire to better himself, something the Patriarch of the Arc family always spoke about with compassion, to be the best you could be, if for no one else but yourself.

His father's praise would diminish the more he would train, his father would simply watch with worry as weeks moved into months and then years and as Jaune would reach the age of sixteen the issue would finally come to a head.

Jaune never learned the reason as to why his father was against his children becoming Huntsmen and he had stopped trying to figure out the answer somewhere along the lines as well. His father was against it plain and simple, no explanation given. So he would never bring it up, not even in conversation with his mother or sister if and when they asked, he would simply evade the question and talk about anything else.

It was a tedious process but it prevented arguments and the inevitable choosing of sides that would occur.

His father and younger sisters would be against him pursuing being a Huntsman, his father for unexplained reasons and his younger sisters simply because they were afraid he might get hurt or die or simply because they didn't want their only brother to leave.

His older sisters and primarily Saphron would defend his choice even using their father's own words of being the best you can be against him.

Their mother would always remain silent, as she wanted simply what was best for everyone and that meant in that specific argument she had no room to speak, she wanted Jaune to stay home where it was safe but also understood that he was his own person and should be allowed to make his own choices.

Jaune did not envy his mother during that argument, besides himself, she was probably the only one that knew what the outcome would be beforehand.

Though this was the Arc family and no argument or disagreement would ever last, his father would not agree with his decision but they would come to an understanding before he left for Beacon, and that was enough for him.

Jaune's musings about his inevitable future events came to a sudden and complete stop as he found himself tumbling to the ground in no small part thanks to his childhood bullies.

"What's wrong Arc, forget how to stand?" The lead bully taunted as he made an act to pull his leg back in casually, thinking himself cool and the action cool after being the source of Jaune's fall.

"Yeah Arc, stand much?" The lead bullies two cronies said in unison, both being too unimaginative to think of anything besides parroting their leader.

 _'Okay, guess this is what's happening today'_ Juane though to himself as he made an act of gingerly getting back to his feet, feigning that he had been hurt somehow by the small tumble he took, in reality, he had landed in such a way that he hadn't even skinned any flesh.

Nuances about his lives were the little things that couldn't be predicted, like the inevitable confrontation between himself and his childhood bullies, it was never a matter of if but when and today seemed to be the day. If Jaune thought any of the three had any tactical thought in their combined heads he would have begrudgingly commended them for waiting till he was on the verge of exhaustion before they played their cruel pranks.

"Yeah, you know me Alister, all left feet. I was only running cause I kept tripping with every step." Jaune gave the trio of bullies a weak smile.

"See that boy's, poor Arc is so pathetic he needs help to just stop himself." Alister laughed loudly, his voice stuck in the midst of puberty striking several different volumes and pitches, his cronies laughing along with him sounding like a pair parrot taught to imitate a laugh.

Jaune frowned slightly at the annoying laughter before simply shaking his head and jogging away. He had only made it a few strides as Alister ran up beside him.

"Enjoying your run Jaune, mind if me and the guys join you?"

Jaune knew Alister wasn't asking for permission and no matter what he might say to dissuade him he would continue to do whatever he wanted anyway. "Sure thing Alister, I hope I can keep up with you guys." Fake enthusiasm laced his tone as he forced out a genuine sounding response. As he did though he carefully increased his pace, measuring his stride to subtly and evenly increase how fast he was going, not enough that it was noticeable but the desired effect resulted from it.

Jaune pulled ahead of Alister for a moment, Alister seeing this immediately and aggressively increased his pace to pull ahead making a clear show that he was faster. It didn't matter to him that this was Jaune's now third lap of Ansel.

Alister's cronies praised their leader for his speed, pandering to his ego as they also ran to be in front of Jaune.

Jaune simply smiled at the behavior and when his next turn came up he hung a left as the three in front of him kept going forward, realizing belatedly that the target of bullying had changed course and the trio sprinted to catch up. In doing so they were all panting heavily as they reached him again, the cronies no longer having the breath to praise Alister and instead simply jogged along in silence.

Once more Jaune barely increased his pace, he did not pull past Alister but instead put himself side by side with his bully, he simply moved far enough ahead that he would be seen in the outer edges of his vision. Once again this spurred Alister forward, his legs pumping hard to keep ahead and at this Jaune kept his stride measured and even, knowing it wouldn't be long before Alister and his cronies would be forced to stop, their leg and lungs burning for the unaccustomed exertion.

It wasn't long before Jaune watched Alister grit his teeth in frustration.

It was an instant and sudden motion, one Jaune had seen thousands upon thousands of times, from a great many different people. Alister frustrated with being unable to prove whatever it was he was trying to prove by running with Jaune had thrown out his leg in a petty and cruel attempt to trip Jaune.

Jaune didn't even sidestep the leg, that would just invite another attempt from Alister.

Jaune with the straightest face in the world, one so perfect and honed to perfection slammed down his leg with his next stride with a frightening degree of force. The motion was practiced and fluid, so perfect in execution that the townsfolk of Ansel who were nearby and would see what occurred wouldn't even be able to tell it was done on purpose.

Jaune's foot caught the back of Alister's calf, driving the leg into the ground to quickly for Alister to do anything to prevent what was to come next.

Juane went down beside Alister himself, adding to the act that both he became tangled up equally in some weird collision, the only difference being that Jaune's fall was on purpose and made to avoid injury.

A howl of Pain escaped Alister's mouth as his knee was driven into the hard cobblestone street.

"Alister, are you alright." Jaune immediately stood, and kneeled down beside his bully and rolled him over as his bully gasped in pain hands clutched on his knee.

Nearby adults had immediately hurried over as soon as the scream of pain was shouted. Jaune quickly inspected Alister's knee before he was eventually pulled back by one of the adults seeking to help Alister. In moments his bully had been hefted into a vehicle and rushed off to what served as Ansel's medical facilities.

Jaune shook his head and with a sidelong glance toward the two cronies who stood stunned in the street still unsure what exactly they were supposed to do, Jaune shrugged his shoulders and made his way home, knowing that continuing his jog would raise many eyebrows if anyone bothered to pay attention.

He had only a moment to look at Alister's knee and sighed in relief once he was away from the crowd and Alister's cronies that he had aimed everything properly. Alister would have a pretty nasty bruise and be forced to use a crutch to even walk for the next couple weeks but he had managed to not break anything this time, which was always a relief in his mind.

Dealing with Alister and really any problem that arose for him around Ansel always forced him to act much more carefully, acting in a way too out of character for his personality always resulted in the most frustrating situations.

There was only so many times he could be sat down by an adult and listen to a different variation of the same talk he had heard a thousand times before in his many many other lives.

Jaune shook his head dispelling all thoughts of Alister or any other worry he might currently have as he reached his home.

* * *

 **Twelve months after beginning the new life, shortly after Jaune's fourteenth birthday.**

* * *

Jaune kept his head firmly entrenched in his textbook, the fact that he could probably recite the entire thing from heart doing little to dissuade him from diverting his sight away from it.

Near the front of the classroom, a visibly fuming Alister was currently reciting his fourth chapter in a row, an uncommon occurrence because the teacher would normally switch readers at minimum every chapter.

Everyone in the classroom knew that yet only two people knew the reasons behind Alister's punishment and even then between Alister and Jaune the only one who really knew what had happened was Jaune.

Alister's ego had taken months of subtle bruising. Jaune wished he could have taken credit for more of it but sadly too much of the fault for Alister's circumstances ended up being entirely his own fault.

Paranoia had resulted in Alister not trusting anything Jaune did anymore, the boy was right not to trust what Jaune was doing but he was letting his ego believe that this was all some elaborate plan Jaune had concocted for revenge when in reality it was simply his regular series of tasks that he would need to complete.

Alister didn't know that and was now actively attempting to be better than Jaune in anything and everything, in the process actually somehow improving himself at the same time.

Whenever Jaune was working out Alister was as well, Jaune got a job to earn some Lien and Alister got two, Jaune read a chapter in class, Alister read four.

Jaune was certain the last part had been a mistake on Alister part, largely in part due to Jaune having read his assigned chapter with such precision and accuracy that he felt he needed to do something seemingly more impressive to show that he was better.

Four painfully slowly read chapters later, and dozens of mispronounced words and in some cases entirely missed paragraph's Alister was finished and able to once again take his seat, red in the face from both anger and embarrassment.

Jaune didn't even have to look past his book to check for himself he could almost hear his bullies blood boiling just under the skin and imagined to himself just how impressive Alister face must currently be.

Shaking his head at the thought he secretly looked down toward his Scroll, checking the time before slipping the device back into his pocket, the school bell ringing perfectly in time with the action.

Jaune slid from his desk and out into the slowly filling hallway of Ansel's school building before any of his classmates. Quickly he tossed his books and papers into his locker and was outside in moments, moving so fast that he was far away from the building before Alister would have even noticed he had slipped away.

Alister was always stubborn and refused to let his easiest target for bullying to go so easily, even if said target had become much harder to deal with recently. Jaune shook his head in mirth as he made his way to his little home away from home.

Ansel was built near a fairly large river and all along its edge, there were places that were impossible to reach due to thick layers of undergrowth and here it was that Jaune carved himself a small serviceable camp in his restarts.

A camp was a very loose choice of word as he did not sleep, cook, or train here it was actually more of a workshop.

The space was tight and confined but those things weren't what his little hideaway was meant for, this little-secluded area, it allowed him the peace and quiet he needed to work on task's that would pay off farther down the line.

Tucked away in a hastily constructed box that was much better disguised than it was crafted already sat a small collection of Dust that he would put into use when he dealt with Cinder and Emerald. Also inside the box was a collection of uncut keys that he had been steadily filing down to the proper dimensions that he would need.

All the keys except for one were currently untouched as he had years before he actually needed to employ the others, the key that was carefully grinded and polished Jaune removed from the box and after a careful inspection with a set of borrowed calipers he nodded approvingly as he pocketed the newly finished key to the Ansel CCT relay office, intent on putting it to use tonight.

* * *

 **Roman Torchwick**

* * *

Success and anonymity were wonderful pairings, they allowed him many luxuries in his life and until one or the other vanished he intended to take full advantage of what anonymity offered him.

As such, he currently was enjoying the finest steak he had ever had, at the incredible price of two thousand Lien for the twelve oz. cut. Each bite he savored with ecstasy across his face.

He was sure his diminutive companion was thinking him insane but at this moment but Roman cared little for what anyone else might think, the steak was that good.

Though he did pause for a moment to look toward Neo. His partner in crime was not paying him the slightest amount of attention though as she was absorbed in her own meal. Some form of Roast Beef and Yam pairing that smelled as though it had been marinated in something sickeningly sweet.

Roman wrinkled his nose as he caught a whiff of it when it was placed before Neo and he was not surprised she had fully invested herself into the meal.

Roman returned his attention to his own plate and as he took another bite he felt his breast pocket vibrate for a moment, the subtle sound from it also drew Neo's attention, wondering if it signaled that they might be forced to leave. Pulling the Scroll out he waved dismissively to Neo, that being enough to sate her curiosity as well as inform her that they would be staying for dessert, something she was likely more concerned about.

The number on the phone was blocked but that was hardly uncommon for someone in his line of work, everyone took extra precautions when it came to communication so with a simple swipe of his thumb Roman answered. "Atlas Logistics and Reclamation, how can we help you today."

"Ah, Roman Torchwick, as discrete as ever."

Roman tensed immediately, his actual name was known to only a handful of people, and those who did know his name would never be so foolish to use it so openly. The deep voice on the other end of the Scroll did though and that put him immediately on edge. "I'm sorry sir, you are mistaken thank you and have a good night." Roman hung up immediately and was met with Neo immediately by his side, his partner while eyeing the restaurant's kitchen doors with a look of regret was ready to leave the moment she noticed something was wrong.

The meal paid for in advance Roman did the bare minimum courtesy he could before leaving the restaurant. Thankfully his scroll did not light up again with a repeated call but he stopped when he noticed that Neo had pulled out her scroll, a hidden number appearing on the screen.

Roman looked at the Scroll as Neo looked at him and in frustration, he reached for the device.

The people that knew his number were terribly limited already but the people who knew Neo's was even smaller than that and those that did would never bother calling her as they knew her to be mute. The clear fact that it was a call and so shortly after his own meant that whoever it was he was dealing with knew important things about himself and that was never a good situation for a criminal to be in.

With a grimace Roman answered the scroll, choosing not to say anything though and let the voice on the other side speak instead.

"Thank you for taking my call Mr. Torchwick."

Roman did his best Neo impersonation kept his lips tightly sealed as he and Neo walked through the night streets of Atlas.

"I am so very glad you have successfully remained anonymous to the authorities so far, I was ever so concerned a year ago during your train robbery that I simply had to send you a message, I couldn't in good conscience not inform you about the hidden trigger. Though I probably didn't need to, you being a professional no doubt would have noticed it without my intervention."

Roman kept moving but he was startled for a moment by what the voice on the scroll had just said. "So that message was from you," Roman spoke, feeling it was at least safe to speak. "I spent some time looking for you, though only have a single message to go off of from a Scroll I, unfortunately, had to brick meant I couldn't find out much."

"I'm flattered that you would consider me interesting enough to spend any of your valuable searchings for me, but allow me to save you some trouble. You will find someone intelligent enough to trace back this call's point of origin to a small town named Ansel in the southern portion of the Kingdom of Vale, your friend will not be able to track it any farther than that, though feel free to, I would be very interested if you could successfully find me."

Roman wanted to retort sarcastically but he bit back his response and instead went straight to the only topic that meant anything to him. "You know who I am as well as my accomplice, so get on with it what do you want from us?"

"You are right, I do want something from you, eventually, I won't lie to you and tell you I don't. However this isn't the time for me to be acquiring your services, this is just a call to protect my investment in you."

"Protect your investment in us." Roman did not like that phrase, it made it sound like he was being manipulated and he felt angry at the thought of that alone.

"Yes, I will have a need for someone of your skills and abilities in the future but only if you remain anonymous, if your identity is ever discovered I would be forced to find another with your pedigree and skill set."

Roman knew the voice was pandering to his ego and pride and damned if it didn't have some effect. "Suppose I choose to accept that pretty line what makes you think I will be willing to help you at all when the time comes that you need my help."

"Truthfully you might not but if that's the case so be it."

Roman wasn't quite sure what to make of that response but didn't consider it favorable for him, criminals rarely liked to let any sort of investment go and this voice already proved skilled enough to acquire his number twice now as well as Neo's and knew enough that if he hung up his Scroll he wouldn't hang up Neo's with the same confidence.

Roman felt himself trapped by the voice on the Scroll for the time being so finally relented and asked. "So if you're invested in me I must be about to do something that would ruin your investment, what is it?"

"Ah, to the topic at hand, I like that. You have finished up the job you have been hired to complete in Atlas and are shopping around for more work, you have been approached by a businessman in the higher echelons of the SDC to acquire something for him. I would suggest you pay close attention to his behavior the next time you meet, maybe even check a little into his background and personal life, the results might be, enlightening."

Before Roman had a chance to respond the line went dead immediately, the call cut off once the important information had been delivered. Handing the scroll back to Neo, Roman felt his breast pocket vibrate again and checked it quickly, a small message was displayed.

~Sorry for ruining your dinner, here is the Lien to cover that.~

Roman looked at the message for a moment before a bank number appeared to follow, the account set up in an obviously fake name and residing in Vacuo, a kingdom run by criminals, a very smart and obvious place to feed money to and from. The exact amount as well as knowing where he was and what he was doing only made him more paranoid about the voice on the Scroll, swearing inwardly he started looking for a safe place to stay for the night, not trusting that his current hideaway was the right place to go.

* * *

 **Roman, two days** **later.**

* * *

He had to admit, as much as he still didn't like the voice on the Scroll this was the second time it had helped him out.

The first time, with the tripwire on the train, yeah he liked to believe he would have noticed it on his own and that thought alone kept him happy but this, this was something else entirely.

A painful sounding scream echoed loudly from the figure tied to the chair across from him, beside him was another figure similarly tied to another chair, this one was gagged though and his eyes darted around frantically in panic.

Roman gave the panicking figure a dismissive snot of contempt knowing that when he got his turn he would break in moments, he was the suit who had hired him and would have likely ruined his own string of successes if not for his tip-off to look at his current employer a little closer.

Roman's attention was brought back to the other figure as he moaned in realistic agony and Neo slowly pulled on the joint of his most recently broken finger. Too many people in his line of work always if they needed to get physical and work someone over always did things in the wrong order. If you break everything to quickly and the person your working over refuses to give you what you want then all your left with is escalating things.

A broken bone or joint is something you can work on for a good long time, really put some effort into it, you can get a lot of answers with a single joint.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT, AT LEAST ASK ME A QUESTION, HOW CAN I HELP?"

Roman stood from his chair finally, the man that Neo had been working over for a while now had been begging to at least be asked a question for some time now and unfortunately for him, there were no questions he or Neo wanted or needed answered. The two of them could get a great deal solved in two days and they already knew everything that needed.

The suit who had hired him was being blackmailed by a mid-level boss of the White Fang, the suit owed a lot of money, more than he could begin to pay off and the Fang knew that.

Ah, desperation was a criminal favorite commodity to prey on and Roman even admitted if the plan had been of his own concoction he would have considered it very intelligent, but if he had concocted it he also wouldn't be the first person to be thrown under the proverbial bus when questions started to be asked.

A sharp ragged gasp of pain filled the room, a thankful relief to the last ear-piercing scream.

He had walked toward where Neo was happily enjoying herself, her grin alone told a story of exactly how much she enjoyed herself when she was given free rein to cause pain.

"Now this is embarrassing." Roman began to speak for the first time since anyone had entered the room. "I actually don't have anything to ask you." He gently poked one of the mans still intact digits and Neo immediately grasped it, the figure in the chair flinching preemptively in terror. "I have all the answers I wanted before bringing either of you here." Roman inclined his head and Neo pulled back immediately the finger she grasped pulled back and held just at the tip of the breaking point. The man in the chair had been about to speak and this simple action cut away any thoughts he might have had.

"See you're a terrorist, and you have no problem with that reputation, I, on the other hand, am simply a criminal, one who is quite successful at both turning a handsome profit as well as remaining anonymous. Something that was almost ruined when I got careless." Roman raised his hands in a defensive posture, feigning asking for forgiveness at his own mistake.

The figure in the chairs eyes hardened into narrow slits as began angrily thrashing, barely reacting as Neo's grip tightened and he lost the use of another finger. This did not please Neo and followed the broken finger by knocking his chair over and planting several swift kicks to the figures head, the result effectively stopping the angry thrashing.

As Neo continued her work happily Roman grabbed the chair the other man sat in and dragged him a fair distance away from where Neo worked.

He inspected the man who was originally going to be his employer for a moment before showing a tooth filled smile and with a quick tug pulled off his gag, immediately filling the void with the barrel end of Melodic Cudgel.

"Ah ah ah, I didn't remove that to listen to you beg, bribe, or bargain, it was removed because I wanted you to say yes, do you understand?" Roman removed his weapon and waited, frowning immediately when the suit did not give him an immediate answer. With a pained sigh of annoyance Roman punched the man in the face and in the moment his jaw hung slack he once again placed Melodic Cudgel back in the mans mouth, this time leaning forward heavily. "Let me rephrase what I just said, if I am no longer speaking and the tip of my weapon is not blocking your ability to speak I want you to say yes, easy right?" Roman nodded once to himself satisfied that his point got across this time and pulled his weapon from the man's mouth once again.

"Yes yes yes yes yes yes."

Roman sighed once again and considered this a success and really shouldn't be blaming the poor terrified man but if he didn't blame him then that would mean he would be at fault and clearly that wasn't the case. Melodic Cudgel came up swiftly and swatted the man in the ear, hard enough to stun him and interrupt the constant stream of yes's. "Don't piss me off, pretend you have to brain cells and understand what I meant or this is going to go a lot worse for you than what you're already imagining.

"Yes."

Roman watched the panicked eyes of the man plead silently with him and he ignored them.

"So you got yourself in a bit of a situation with money and in desperation, you went to the White Fang for help, they helped you cover your little oops and they got leverage on you. But to pay the white Fang back you have to help them on a rather risky job, one that could make the missing Lien so so trivial."

"Yes."

"Kidnap one of the Schnee children and then a ransom, simple straightforward and highly profitable. Hiring a third party that would have no clue or context on the plan to do the work for you was a master class idea. The White Fang gets a high profile hostage, you get out of your debt to the Fang and erase your failure and the third party gets the blame. Pretty smart you know that."

"Yes."

Roman smiled at that and hooked Melodic Cudgel around a leg of the chair and upending it sending the man back first onto the ground.

"As I was dealing with catching you and your loud half I discovered all your nasty little plans and the steps that you would take to make sure the White Fang would get the credit they wanted with little risk to them and that I or whoever the third party you hired to be the patsy would get caught in the most incriminating of scenarios. All very well thought out and shows that when you're desperate you can put a very good plan together, the only flaw is that if anyone was to pay close attention to you yourself that well you would look just so... soft, wrong, awful, really just terrible in every way, wouldn't you agree?"

"Yes."

Roman smiled happily and leaned over the man. "I am so glad you agree, I have someone here that also agrees that you are just awful, you might know him quite well, he, unfortunately, could not be here at this very moment but he has been watching this entire meeting with what I hope is rapt interest though honestly, I doubt it, too much screaming probably."

"Yes"

Roman smiled at the man's continued ability to follow instructions, the smile faded fast as he tipped his hat low and with a theatrical bow turned around and for the first time made sure that a very clear camera was seen by the man in the suit. "I do hope that this impresses upon you how truly sorry I am and I had no intentions toward your family."

With a frown, Roman sidestepped away from the man in the chair as he heard the very audible noise of the businessman soiling himself.

"My head of security has gone over the details you discovered and you have my temporary thanks, due to your actions I am feeling generous and will keep my word, you and your accomplice are free to leave Atlas, none of my agents will impede you."

Roman sighed in relief as the screen on the other end winked out of existence. He brought down Melodic Cudgel with brutal force rendering the now frantically yelling man unconscious. "Neo finish up we are leaving."

* * *

 **Here have another one!**

 **So for those that are curious why I don't just skip ahead and reunite Jaune and Yang it is simply because I hate all of you and I want you all to suffer.**

 **No, seriously that is literally the only reason.**

 **Alright not really.**

 **Jaune has his own journey to make and just because he has an untested ability does not mean he will throw away lifetimes of work and potentially ruin his second chance to have a life with Yang by skipping ahead to be with her.**

 **He can guaranty that their years at Beacon are uninterrupted by horrible events and constant danger so he is more invested in his actions leading up to Beacon than he has been in a very long time. He is not coasting from one life to the next but instead putting his maximum effort into this one.**

 **Aside from that, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and as always lemme know what you think, even if you want to tell me that I suck.**


	44. Chapter 44

**Jaune Arc, General Education Graduation Day, Morning.**

* * *

Being understandably oblivious was the greatest thing that the him from before all the resetting of lives had ever been. The ability to simply ignore things or pretend to not understand what others were saying saved him no ends of headaches through his many lives, for example, his class graduation.

Now so fit that he had eyes following or ogling him anywhere he went and a kind and caring personality that spoke volumes to what type of person he was.

It would have been some cruel twist of fate if he wasn't immensely popular in Ansel in his resets.

His popularity had made him the focus of every single, single, girl his age, some subtle others very direct in their intentions to have him ask them to be his date.

Through all this Jaune played things dumb, not catching even the most obvious of hints as he successfully remained a dateless bachelor for the event that was fast approaching.

As the days had grown closer many of the girls who originally sought his attention were asked by others who accepted after realizing that Jaune was just too oblivious to catch the signals they had sent his way.

Jaune was relaxing is his little hideaway down by the river, his camp continuing to remain secret from everyone. He never needed to get a date for this event, at least not one that would cause a fight between the girls. He had been asked by his youngest sister, Argentine, months ago to be his date.

He had graciously accepted the seven-year-olds request and knew that it would easily solve any problem that might have existed if he went stag or with any other girl.

His outfit had been sorted out by his collective of sisters once they found out he was taking their youngest as a promise and when that happened he was basically excluded from any and all decision making and was now simply just a means to an end to make Argentine's first date special, even though it was with her brother and at an event that she would likely become bored with very quickly.

Jaune had no problems with this though as it gave him ample reasons to be out of the house and work on his own projects.

One of which was currently in his hands as he carefully manipulated the black time dilation dust crystal with practiced care, fitting it into a device that looked at one time to be a small handheld radio, now though it was twice the size and easily three times the weight.

It wasn't the first of its series as below his workbench sat over two dozen similarly looking devices, each had a dust crystal attached of varying colors, the most prominent being yellow and red, the more immediately destructive forms of dust but there was every color represented.

Once the crystal was firmly in place Jaune pulled out an old scroll model that he had modified to be the triggering system for each trap, a few minutes of syncing up the devices and as soon as the scroll read the device Jaune smiled and tucked away the scroll safely inside a hidden compartment built into his workbench. A paranoid extra step but one he made sure to do every life.

Each trap below his workbench was a harmless paperweight without the very important scroll but with the scroll they were very deadly, they needed to be as they were the main reason he was able to deal with Cinder and Emerald before they could get to Amber.

Out of both parts and dust, he took a moment to pull out his actual Scroll and connected it directly to Ansel's CCT.

He needed to actually be inside the building to send out messages and he had been busy with that recently, but to receive messages that was another thing. A few adjustments to the internal circuitry and a few less than legal programs and Scroll was basically one of a kind. Anyone who wasn't him would see nothing but a regular Scroll, filled with all the dumb programs a teenager would have.

It was anything but, as Jaune opened his Scroll and then closed it, repeating this process two more times, in each instance entering a different unlock code. The final time he did the screen that popped to life was filled with a collection of Apps that dealt with stocks and gambling, financial reports, anything and everything regarding making Lien.

This was something he only toyed with in his lives, earning enough Lien to inevitably hire and then pay off Roman Torchwick for his time. Once he reached the amount he typically needed he would generally stop, content to live on the Lien he would earn as a Huntsman.

Now though he looked at his current balance and wondered if he might have gotten a little greedy in this life as his combined bank accounts added up to several Hundred thousand Lien, far more than he had ever used in any previous life.

His perceived greed wasn't affecting anything or anyone in any major fashion aside from maybe some criminals off in Vacuo who were trying to understand how exactly he was draining them of funds. Legal or Illegal, those people or places that accepted his bets were no doubt infuriated with his success and the simple fact that they had a reputation to uphold they could not welch on paying out, they, of course, could deny him any further service but the fact that he was not there in person and did all his business through digital channels made it impossible for him to be completely stopped.

Though now as he looked at his balance's he figured he probably should, he had more than enough Lien to cover for his plans going forward and pushing his luck would no doubt come back to bite him.

He was a little disappointed that he didn't reach as high of a number to say that he was a millionaire, not that he could tell anyone, but it would have been fun to at least see a bank balance showing seven digits.

He would need to start moving his funds out of Vacuo sooner or later but for today he considered the decision to stop his money earning to be enough of a start. His bets would have to finish naturally but he could remove his presence from the stock market, and began to immediately, dropping copious amounts of shares in large single transactions. It took time to dump everything but after several hours he was done.

Checking the time Jaune groaned in frustration as his impatience with inevitability, of having to constantly hurry up and wait for the next thing he needed to react to drove him stir crazy.

Settling the idea that he no longer needed to make anymore Lien as well as being out of materials to craft any more of his devices he did the only thing left to him.

He sat on a cleared patch of ground away from his tools and any form of distraction and concentrated on his breathing, He knew through many failed and successful attempts through his copious lives that he was capable of forcing his Aura to unlock naturally. Unfortunately for many of the things he could control in his resets his ability to personally unlock his own Aura was sketchy at best.

In Libraries around Remnant, there are books both new and ancient that explain the necessary requirements to activate one's own Aura and sadly as someone who has read every single one, the books were not one hundred percent accurate, worse some would openly contradict others.

The fact that some individuals unlock it through trauma and others, like one Ruby Rose, who unlock it while basically playing a game of tag it meant self-unlocking was a crapshoot at best, which was probably a good thing or more people would do it and that would cause its own set of problems.

He had had a string of good luck once upon a time forcibly unlocking his Aura but the frame of mind he forced upon himself to do so gradually became less and less effective, eventually ceasing to work entirely. Since then he has occasionally managed to achieve the feat on his own but more often then not he was forced to rely on other sources.

That never stopped him from trying though as it was a practical use of his time, much better spent than rereading or rewatching or repeating a pointless conversation he had had an insurmountable amount of times.

Focusing on his breathing Jaune pushed his rhythm in wildly different patterns, attempting to mimic a state of panic where his breathing might be irregular, he continued this until be began to feel light headed and when that sensation began his effort redoubled and he pushed himself to his feet. His body, unfortunately, responding perfectly but he still persisted, dropping to his chest and then forcing himself back to his feet, his lungs hungrily sucking in as much air as they could as he struggled to keep his irregular breathing pattern continued.

Sweat began to pour from him almost immediately as his body struggled against the wild exercise.

Jaune collapsed into a pool of sweat after forcing his body to its absolute limit and without even a second spared trying to manifest his Aura he knew it had failed, sighing in defeat he gave up for the day.

Lying on the ground panting heavily Jaune lost himself to thought.

His normal thoughts about dealing with Cinder and effectively removing Salem from the world for the duration of his life had been replaced by plans of how exactly was he supposed to complete the request of the relics.

He barely had even the formation of a plan currently and after three years that knowledge frustrated him to no end.

He had a lot of vague information and details like the criteria to access each relic and their locations but that didn't really give him the ability to formulate a plan he could be confident in.

Killing Salem's minions, at least the exposed ones would cause her to remove herself from the world, bide her time and wait for a better opportunity but that didn't mean she wouldn't be keeping tabs on important places and figures, if he managed to expose a relic she would redouble her efforts to claim them.

That in itself was his biggest problem, he felt his plan needed a way to quickly gather all four relics, give them a chance to keep Yang following himself from life to life and then to return them to there places of safety. An all but impossible task, considering just the distance between each relic in the first place.

Well one of several impossible tasks, he couldn't even really grasp a method to begin, Raven Branwen being a very big and immediate hurdle. She was very much an unknown across his many live, seemingly siding with whoever she chose to on whims at times. Of course, the whims made sense once the larger picture was understood but even then he could never be confident that he hadn't overlooked something.

It was so easy to look at her as simply self-serving and self-preserving but that was hardly the case, he would find her to contradict those beliefs in her multiple times in multiple lives.

Jaune stopped thinking about his half conceived plans and gave up on everything for the day, it now being late enough to return home safely and not to be immediately turned away by his sisters.

* * *

 **Jaune, Graduation day, early evening.**

* * *

Jaune stood with his sister Argentine, in line to enter into the field where the graduation ceremony was to be held.

Well, he attempted to be in a line, his classmates, or the girls in his class specifically were cooing appreciatively over how adorable his sister looked.

This also had the added benefit that no one was upset at him not choosing them to act as an escort, as he was well known to put his sisters, especially the younger ones before himself or anyone else.

Jaune stood smiling at the scene as gradually Argentine, slowly crept closer and closer to him, eventually coming to hide behind one of his legs as she was becoming less an less confident in her desire to actually be here any longer.

"How are you holding up Argent?" Jaune looked down at his sister and gave her a big smile.

"I..." Argentine began before being cut off.

"I'm super nervous, you know how I hate crowds, I'm really glad your here to keep me company, I might not have had the nerve to stick around without you keeping me here, I mean I can't disappoint my sister by running away can I?" His smile continued and grew as his word's got the desired effect from Argentine and she came out from behind his legs and stood next to him with a little more confidence than before.

Jaune knew they still had a few more minutes to wait before the procession began but he knew that his sister would happily wait with confidence now that he had given her some much-needed words of encouragement, he knew she always regretted running off on the lives he had been unable to figure out a way to calm her nerves.

"Jaune..."

He looked down at his sister. "What's up Argent?"

"Is it true that you're going to be leaving soon?"

Jaune frowned at this question, Argentine was never the one to bring up this topic, or engage with the argument that would happen in the days to follow. Her stance would be clear on her wanting him to stay in Ansel and be safe. Jaune sighed wondering exactly how he should word this to not upset his sister. "I will be Argent, there are things I need to do with my life and I just can't complete them here in Ansel."

"You're going to another place to learn to be a Huntsman like dad right?"

"That's right, I'm going to learn how to be a great fighter and protector just like dad. It has always been my dream and you know how mom and dad always encourage us to follow our dreams right." Jaune found himself frowning as Argentine looked out of sorts, split or whether she wanted to say something or not. "Hey, no looking like that lil'sis, what are you thinking their that's causing you to look like that?"

"It's just, dad says that but he doesn't want you to become like him, I overheard him talking to Mom and he doesn't want any of us to have to deal with the things he does."

Jaune nodded silently, understanding now, Argentine had overheard the beginnings of their fathers disagreement with his decision, even if no one had brought it up yet, and was, unfortunately, more informed than she had been in his other lives, an unfortunate occurrence but not one he could really do anything about at this point, it had happened and now he needed to at least address the topic properly.

"I don't want you to go anywhere, I want you to stay with us."

"Argentine..." Jaune began slowly, the words he sought coming slowly as he struggled with how to respond.

"But you won't will you, your going to go off and do all sorts of dangerous things and become a hero."

Jaune smirked for a second at the comment, having clearly assumed wrong that Argentine wanted him to stay but now making it sound like while she still did she also knew he was going to regardless and was attempting to be happy for him, an impressive amount of maturity for someone of only seven years. "Yeah, I am going to go off and do all kinds of dangerous things but I doubt I'll be considered a hero by anyone but you."

"Aren't all Huntsmen heroes?"

"Some are, there are some big famous names out there that are considered to be on some special level above all others but most Huntsmen are just people, doing what they can to keep the world safe." ' _Some more than others and rarely in a way that those in charge appreciate.'_ "Just because dad is your hero doesn't mean everyone else thinks he is. Though I do hope once I become one I can share being a hero with dad for you." Jaune smiled at the giggle that escaped his sister, the response confirming that he had somehow chosen the correct words to at least kept things positive when it very well could have gone either way.

Jaune was about to say something more but a voice a the head of the line commanded everyone's attention and signaled it was time for the graduation procession to begin.

"It's time to start, you ready Argent?" Jaune said reaching out his hand which was immediately grabbed in too quick a manner that showed just how nervous his sister still was.

The procession moved from the small gathering point into a large open field that was packed people. Ansel's graduation ceremony also doubled as the towns yearly celebration of survival as a frontier settlement that survived.

Ansel was no longer in any way considered a frontier settlement but the tradition stuck and there was always a very large celebration, one large enough that it brought in a great deal of tourism as well.

The site of the massive crowd froze Argent in her tracks but Jaune knew what he needed to do. "Whew, big crowd, I'm glad your here or I definitely would have run off after seeing this." He looked down and giving Argentine the best smile he could and a gentle squeeze of his hand they made their way forward.

* * *

 **Graduation day, Late evening/Early morning.**

* * *

The ceremony was the same as always, the same valedictorian with the same speech. The dance afterward with was always a short experience as everyone was more interested in changing into more comfortable clothes and attending the festival that would get into full swing shortly.

Jaune, however, had a hurdle to leap through tonight.

Roman would make a mistake tonight, one that would prove costly and make him a very public figure, unless he intervened. His timing had to be near perfect and the slight change he experienced with Argentine earlier had made him nervous.

Roman becoming a publicly known criminal rarely mattered to him in his other lives so long as he could use the thief to make sure the issues with team RWBY would be sorted out correctly, and the team would become healthy, stable, and cohesive.

This time though, even if his plans weren't set in stone by any stretch of the imagination he knew that Roman being an invisible ally who had his anonymity intact could be nothing but useful so he nervously kept checking his scroll, watching the time pass excruciatingly slowly.

Tonight of all nights the Ansel CCT would only close after the festivities had all but ended, the need to remain open was simply for emergency reasons. Ansel's population would swell for the night and there would inevitably be rowdy and drunk partygoers that would no doubt end up hurt.

In years past sometimes injuries might have been significant enough for people to be airlifted to Vale. So as a simple safety measure the CCT stayed open until the party ended, which unfortunately didn't happen for a very long time.

Jaune knew roughly around what time the party would end and wrap up, and anxiously awaited the moment he needed to act. He was sure if anyone looked his direction with any amount of curiosity they would no doubt see him wearing a very anxious expression and for that reason, he had kept himself moving through the crowd, a tried and true method of avoiding needless conversations and confrontations.

As the crowds thinned though his method for avoiding people slowly became less and less effective and changed into him standing out more noticeably. In the end he simply found himself a bench in a quieter area and pretended to be asleep, a sight not terribly uncommon on this night as he wasn't the only one who looked to sit down and take a break only to end up asleep till morning, though those looking for a simple break were also probably at some level of inebriation and physical exhaustion, while he was suffering from neither.

He simply had to wait, something that he was both supremely proficient at while also being horribly impatient. Gradually though his waiting paid off as the noise began to gradually fade away to nothingness and he peeked an eye open, glancing at the towns large central clock that stood high enough to be seen over the rooftops of the majority of Ansel's buildings.

Jaune made an act of waking up in the off chance anyone nearby was paying any attention to him, as unlikely as that was he continued to be careful. He had positioned himself so that when it came time for him to begin the Ansel CCT relay would be conveniently positioned between where he was and his home so that again anyone paying attention to him would not think his direction of travel as terribly weird.

Reaching the CCT as the lights from inside the building flashed off he couldn't believe how conveniently he had timed that. With a smile, he slipped over the fence, and with his homemade key quietly snuck inside the building, deactivating the alarm through the long remembered code and slid in front of one of many empty terminals.

This trip was a short one and would just be a simple message, no long conversation, or subtle banter, just a quick and immediate warning.

He had tried multiple ways of sending this message, but sending it early always made Roman suspicious so in the end, it came down to a narrow window of time he was forced to work with.

Plugging his scroll into the terminal and with a simple tap of his finger, his message was sent.

He was in and out of the CCT so quickly that the guards outside hadn't even finished a full circuit of their patrol, not that that mattered to him as he slipped past them with ease and made his way home, as quickly as he could, hoping to find a few hours actual sleep before the world would come alive again in the morning and his family would be eager to attend the fairgrounds that would continue the celebration that had started the day prior.

As he neared his home he noticed that his father was sitting on the front porch, clearly waiting for something and if Jaune had to guess that something was definitely him.

Jaune wished that he could somehow avoid his father but knew better than that, and he trudged up the hill, though he did make an act of it, not so far as to appear drunk, his clothes and breath would tell the truth that he wasn't no matter how well he might act but he did add a stagger to his step and made his face sag and droop, feigning sleepiness.

As he neared the porch he fumbled around in his pockets, pretending he was looking for his key to let himself inside, only looking up at the last second to notice the patriarch of the Arc family stood blocking his way.

"Hey dad, what are you doing up so late," Jaune spoke slowly, punctuating his sentence with a loud yawn.

"I was waiting up for you actually, I would like to have a word with you without having to worry about the rest of the family overhearing me."

' _Oh, how the little things seemed to matter in ways I cannot predict, first Argentine pickup up on something she normally wouldn't and now dad confronting me.'_

"Sure I guess, I but does it have to be right now I am pretty tired." Jaune knew it was a stupid act but having already committed to it he couldn't simply drop it.

"It does."

"Alright, I guess, what do you want to talk about." Jaune gave up and found himself one of the many porch chairs to sit down on.

"I know you haven't brought up the subject of what your intentions would be once you came of age and graduated but I think its clear by your behavior and drive to better yourself over the past few years that you intend to be a Huntsman."

Jaune blinked rapidly, feigning away his faked sleepy state and leaned forward, showing his father that he had his attention fully.

"The fact that you never mentioned or brought it up tells me that you realize that I would be against such a decision, I won't get into my reasons here why I never wanted any of my children to follow me in my career path. Nor will I attempt to talk you out of your choice, even if it disappoints me but I will ask are you certain of your choice. Absolutely positive this is what you want to do with your life?"

"Yes." Jaune said the singular word with firm determination, making sure there was no hint of doubt or apprehension in his voice, an easy feat, all things considered, considering how he had likely seen the worst the world could be through at any single person. He did watch with a bit of regret as his father's shoulders sagged slightly, it was a rare thing to see his father vulnerable in any sense of the word and seeing him that way after confirming his father's fears meant a great deal.

His father always greatly cared for his family, they all knew this fact but rarely was it visibly witnessed so openly.

"As I said I won't try to talk you out of this or stand in your way but you also won't receive any help from me. No training, recommendations or Aura, if you want to do this then it will be on your own."

Jaune knew he would never receive those things from his father but in his own way his father had helped him, maybe it was a simple slip of the tongue, maybe not, but Jaune couldn't remember a single time his father had ever mentioned Aura before, at least not without him bringing it up himself. "I can handle that." Jaune stood and was about to head inside but stopped as he laid his hand on the doorknob. "I know you are just doing what you think is best to keep us all safe, but relax a little, you can't always be there for us, we need to be able to take care of ourselves, each in our own way, this is simply the way I have chosen." With that said Jaune pushed the door open and went inside.

* * *

 **Roman Torchwick, Same night, as he received a Scroll message.**

* * *

 **~You are being tricked, this is a setup, don't get into the car.~**

Roman had only just pulled out his Scroll to read the message, assuming it was an update from Neo as he had been about to step into a waiting vehicle. The message had been short and simple, no banter or indirect instructions that would force him to think about the message for a moment to understand what his mysterious friend wanted him to do.

Roman pretended the message was longer than the short simple sentence and stared past the screen, letting his eyes take in his surroundings carefully for the few moments he was allowed and in those few short seconds, he inwardly cursed at his own stupidity.

He had been on a windfall of success's, high-end jobs with high-end money attached and he had been so caught up in his success's to notice simple tells that have likely scared off some of the most novices of criminals.

This was a simple job, a quick break and enter, collect some files off a Mistral councilmembers computer and he would be gone, his employer's money padding out his already quiet healthy bank account.

The fact the job had been so easy hadn't even crossed his mind, everything had been so perfectly going his way that he just ended up rolling with it and it nearly cost him, what he wasn't sure but judging by his current surroundings it would have been something major.

The three men he was with, now that he paid attention to them were clearly not exactly what they were pretending to be, which was supposed to be low-level cronies in Mistral crime family. For men simply assigned to transport they all were showing clear signs of nervousness, the signs of it growing more obvious as every second passed.

Now being nervous wasn't a big thing to Roman, he still felt his nerves act up when he was working it was a natural reaction in his line of work but what these three were doing was beyond a small bit of nervousness.

They watched him too closely and his pause before getting into the vehicle had the two outside the car turn toward him expectantly like they anticipated trouble.

"Mr. Torchwick, we have a timeframe to account for, we really need to be going." The driver spoke quickly.

"Right, yes, just one moment please I need to respond to this," Roman responded as nonchalant as he could as his mind formed a plan to deal with the situation he now found himself in.

"You can do that in the vehicle, let's go." The driver spoke again.

"Yes, your right, sorry, let's go," Roman said mumbling a false apology to set those present slightly at ease as he moved to enter the back seat of the car that was waiting for him, Melodic Cudgel held in front of himself. As he was about to step in he planted his foot and hooked the crook of his cane around the driver's throat and yanked it back in one excruciatingly quick and brutal jerk, a sickening snap signaling that the driver was taken care of.

"So, I'm feeling generous, if either of you tells me who set me up I might let you go, how about it." Roman said, casually unhooked his Cane from the dead man's neck and brought it forward, waving it before him menacingly.

A loud crack of a pistol being fired echoed through the building and all eye's looked at the location of where the singular bullet was aimed.

Roman had stood his ground remarkably well as his Aura came up to block the singular round. The flattened round hung in the air by his breast for a moment, seemingly held suspended there by his Aura itself and then as the Aura moved away from there the spent bullet fell to the floor with an underwhelming ~plink~.

"Nice aim, how's mine?" The tip of Melodic Cudgel flipped up producing a crosshair, not that the man it was targetted at noticed as the action was so fluid and quick he hadn't even managed to react as the dust project that had been fired collided with his chest exploding on impact and flinging the corpse into the wall behind him.

"How about you..." Roman had turned his attention to where the last man had been standing only to find the space empty and the figure to be sprinting as fast as he could towards an exit and presumed safety. With a smirk Roman simply reversed the grip on his weapon and fired off the hook of his cane, the piece catching the man in the back of head sending him sprawling to the ground before Roman hit the switch to begin retracting his weapon back together. Years of practice made the next part comical to watch as the figure pushed himself to his feet and tried to continue running only to not make it a single stride as somehow the hook of Romans cane had caught his ankle perfectly as it began retracting and the poor man found himself being dragged towards exactly where he didn't want to be.

Roman stood his ground as his trapped companion slowly slid across the floor toward him, struggling fervently to free himself, eventually succeeding. His success was short-lived as he looked up he found himself looking directly up at the man he wanted to be nowhere near.

"How about we try this again, you answer my questions and maybe you make it out of here alive." Roman smiled as he fished a cigar out of his pocket, not bothering to go through his whole show of meticulously cutting off the end, figuring the man before him to be scared enough as is and realistically he just wanted a smoke that badly, something to curb his anger at his own incompetence.

"Please don't hurt me, we were only following orders."

"Good, good. I like a man who can follow orders, people who can think for themselves can be so tiresome." Roman said as he proceeded to place the cigar in his mouth and light it, pausing to enjoy the flavor for a moment, letting it relax him before he pulled it from his mouth and looked directly at the man. "Wouldn't you agree?"

"Yes, absolutely, thinking is completely overrated."

Roman smiled as the man spoke. "Now I have a simple question for you, that you will answer truthfully on the first try, or else you will end up like your two friends. Do. You. Understand?" Roman placed his cane between the man's legs leaning on it heavily, so much that the only noise that could be heard between the two men was the metallic end of his weapon scrapping hard against the concrete underneath.

He didn't get a verbal response but the man nodded his head fervently, indicating that he was eager to please.

"Who do you work for?" Roman didn't expect this lackey who was too scared to be anyone truly important to know what the whole plan was but he would know who hired him, even if that person didn't have a name then a description would be enough for him and Neo to deal with finding whoever wanted to play them.

"We were hired by the Spiders, this was going to be our initiation."

At this bit of news Roman raise an eyebrow, the Spiders were less of a gang and more of a collection of criminals, they definitely would not be interested in what was on the hard drive of a Mistral councilmember. "That's a lie, a shame really, but I guess it's to be expected. Maybe next time think about the operation that you're throwing under the bus. Oh right, I guess for you there won't be a next time" The motion was quick and immediate, a knife had appeared seemingly out of thin air, slitting the man's throat in a moment, causing him to bleed out entirely in a matter of moments.

With a sneer of contempt, Roman dropped the knife casually on the ground, having no desire to place the gore covered blade back inside his coat.

Knocking some ash off the end of his cigar he did pull out the data drive he stolen tonight and looked at it with interest.

' _What could be on you that would be valuable enough to double cross the criminal who stole you?'_

* * *

 **Tidyfrog: Well Blackwal has gotten himself in a writing mood hasn't he! I started my Christmas break with a Email from the man and inside it I found five chapters for me to go over. So there will be a couple more coming out real quick and I'll kick Blackwal in the head if he decides to slack off again after such an impressive spurt of activity.**

* * *

 **Another chapter and a few more developments, nothing massive just some prep work and keeping Roman safe.**

 **Next chapter is done, actually since Tidyfrog gave it away and I'm choosing not to erase her added lines I guess you know the next two chapters are done. I enjoyed this next chapter alot, as I got to play around with what sort of equipment Jaune would be using after so many lifetimes of basically winning as far as he was concerned.**

 **I won't go into any detail beyond that though.**

 **As always, let me know what you think, even if it is just to tell me that I suck.**


	45. Chapter 45

Jaune had kept a close on eye his parents first home across his many lives, returning across multiple lives as he could to check on the building with interest.

It never sat right in his mind that in his singular life with a companion that his father had suddenly remembered an old heirloom that was left behind in the old building.

The pendant that showed the original form of Corcea Mors as well as its new state.

Now as he sat on Bullhead traveling between Ansel and Vale he inspected the pendant for only the third time in his many many lives.

The first being when his father had originally given it to him in the singular life he remembered it existed.

The second time he inspected it was when he had given it away in the same life, his selfish life. He found himself smiling fondly at the memory, though he did wonder if he would be smiling about this moment somewhere down the line in his lives as well or if he might instead be embarrassed because he essentially stole the pendant.

Sure his father in all his other lives never removed it from the old dilapidated house but neither had he, content to let it remain there, a memory in more ways than one.

So he had taken it, he couldn't stand to think about leaving it behind when the person he had given it too would be returned to him.

Turning the pendant over and over again in his hands he eventually tucked it away in his duffle bag for safety.

His thoughts had unintentionally returned to Yang as he had held the pendant, and the all too easy temptation to track her down came with the slightest thought of reuniting.

He was of age to be on his own, no one would think twice about someone who was progressing to become a Huntsman to visit a prep academy in advance of applying for Beacon.

The thought stuck with him his entire trip from Ansel to Vale, an honestly unhealthy distraction if he was being honest with himself, he had made up his mind much earlier in this life that he would not meet up with Yang until he had first dealt with Cinder and Emerald, and more importantly tested his ability to return memories on Roman first.

He had no idea what sort of reaction or effect that might occur with his ability to return memories of past lives and unfortunately, or fortunately, Jaune wasn't sure which way the criminal would look at it he was going first.

Roman being first meant it was still the better part of a year, only months before Beacon began that he would come into contact with Roman, he would need to return to Ansel and use the CCT relay one final time to arrange for Roman to be in Vale and to have a face to face meeting arranged. Jaune knew he could push the date forward but as things stood he wasn't sure if Roman had his memories returned and knew of Cinders plans he wouldn't mess up the ambush.

So Jaune simply kept to his original plan, and that plan involved, for today at least some shopping and a test or two.

Stepping off the Bullhead in Vale Jaune picked up his duffle bag carryon and waited a moment for his other luggage to be unloaded, an enormous suitcase that his mother had insisted on packing for him. The bag weighed a ton as he dragged it behind him towards a counter at the farthest end of Vale's Bullhead station, the sign above the desk simply reading ~Goodwill~.

Twenty minutes later, after filing some forms to donate the bag and its entire contents to goodwill and one short taxi ride later Jaune stood before a tailor shop, one specifically catering to Huntsman ware.

Smiling in appreciation Jaune strode inside with confidence, coming to stand before the primary counter in moments and looking eye to eye with an ancient human.

Being old did little to affect the man's energy as he happily hummed to himself as he quickly fed a needle through a piece of tough deerskin leather like it was nothing, his hands moving of their own accord as he turned his full attention toward the man who now stood at his counter.

"Good day young sir, and welcome to _**'Semblance Stitches'**_ how can we help you today?"

"Hello, I'm Jaune Arc, I placed a" Jaune smiled as he was cut off almost immediately after he spoke his name, the old man behind the counter leaned forward and inspected him very inquisitively. In a speed that would astound anyone that wasn't familiar with Ruby Rose the man had pulled out a length of rope with carefully measured lengths on it and began pulling at Jaune's limbs, checking measurements and dimensions with professional care.

"Yes, Arc, you say most interesting way you placed your order. I'm happy to say your order is complete and ready to go."

Jaune smiled as the old man furrowed his eyebrows slightly. "Is something the matter sir?"

"I would imagine so, but no nothing is. I assumed when you arrived for your order we would need to make some adjustments but judging by these measurements and the fact that you have some more growing to do I would say your order will fit you perfectly, who exactly took your measurements I would very much like to know who could make such perfect measurements and account for future growth so well."

The answer Jaune could give this man would no doubt confuse him as the measurements had been done by him hundreds of times, enough that Jaune had finally retained the information so that he could order his clothing over a call and not be forced to wait around Vale for his equipment to be tailored, as simple as the pieces would be. "That would be my sister Saphron, she likes to make clothes and with six sisters and a brother she got lots of practice." Jaune knew it was a lie, if this man ever actually spoke to his sister he would learn that she was barely capable of using a needle and thread let alone making perfect measurements.

"Ah, very good." The old man pulled out a card from beneath the counter and held it out. "If she is ever looking for work in the industry I would be happy to give her a chance."

Jaune accepted the card graciously, as he had so many times before, promising to give it to his sister each and ever time, even though the card would remain tucked casually into his wallet for the foreseeable future before he inevitably threw it away. He always felt a twinge of regret for deceiving the old man but in the end, it was simply an easy answer that had no consequences. The business would continue to operate smoothly for the remainder of the old man's life before being taken over by his own son who would also prosper.

"There is a dressing room in the back if you would like to try the items on before you pay."

"No thank you, I am in a bit of a rush and need to get going."

"Very well, then let's take care of the bill."

Jaune stepped out into the street, keeping the package tucked securely under his arm he stepped into the waiting taxi outside, having paid the driver a considerable tip to wait for him.

His next stop was a Huntsman armorer.

Lacking Crocea Mors in the early portion of his new lives due to his change in behavior and finding it unsavory to steal the item any further had meant he needed to experiment with other options. He had put his various forms of training together and used a wide range of weapons through his lives before gradually deciding that the big flashy mechashift weapons simply weren't his style.

That wasn't to say what he finally settled on didn't have its tricks as well, they most certainly did.

Acquiring his weapons legally meant he was limited at the outset on what he was allowed to own, there were rules about owning weapons, not everyone was allowed to own building destroying caliber guns that could conveniently be hidden away inside a handbag and expand to the size of a minigun.

No temporary license or permit meant simple gear and he was fine with that. He always managed with simple so this was not anything new to him.

He was in and out of the shop in a matter of minutes, another parcel tucked firmly away as he stepped into the taxi for a final time as it drove him to Beacon facility located in the heart of Vale. Here is where he parted ways with the taxi and smiled as he looked at the building as well as the queue of people outside.

Most the people standing in line were around his age, though there were a few exceptions of much older individuals as well.

He would be joining the line shortly but first he had to divest himself of most of his luggage and to do that he stepped into a nearby building, it was a simple business that rented out carts or scooters for those shopping in Vale that had a large amount of distance to travel, aside from the vehicle solutions they also had temporary storage lockers people could use for a fee and so Jaune paid for one and deposited all of his stuff except a simple sword, similar in length, weight, and width as Crocea Mors. The only real difference between the two weapons being the crossguard, his current one only having a simple straight piece of iron instead of the more elaborate one of Crocea Mors.

Aside from the sword and it's plain leather scabbard Jaune also wore a bandolier that held four simple throwing knives, simple triangular blades, sturdy, effective, and most importantly cheap looking.

Looking cheap was important, if he passed this test then there would be a background check done on him and if he showed up wearing and using things that clearly he should not be able to afford then questions would be asked, and more importantly, Ozpin might be made aware of his presence, an unsavory outcome.

Gear tucked away safely, weapons fastened securely Jaune strode purposefully across the street and joined the end of the line.

The line in front of him was filled with activity as the younger people talked animatedly, excited to finally be here and to take their first steps to become Huntsmen. The line was filled with people whose family could not afford to send them to a prep academy, places like Signal being very expensive to enter and if the world relied only on the prep schools to completely fill the major academies for Huntsmen then there would be an even greater shortage than there already was for able-bodied Huntsmen to fight off the Grimm.

So free testing facilities were made in each major kingdom, for those who had the passion to become Huntsmen but not necessarily the funds for the introductory education could come to see if they met the criteria necessary to attend the Academies or in some cases to be allowed to take the full license exam.

Jaune and many in the line were too young to be given an opportunity to get a full license, they would need to be in their late twenties before that becomes an option and even then they needed to meet a very high level of criteria beyond simple age and passing this introductory examination.

This was to him simply an official and legal method to earn attendance to Beacon, he didn't like to admit how long it took him to realize this was even a thing. He had still been forging his way in long past the point he would have been able to easily ace this examination and that knowledge was painfully embarrassing, as well as humbling to know that he was still fallible.

The line in front of him progressively grew shorter as time went by, five people at a time were admitted into the building and that happened at roughly thirty minute intervals, enough time for the Beacon professor that was handling the examinations to do a quick orientation, answer any immediate questions and allow them to begin their written test before admitting the next group, or that's was how it was supposed to work, he wondered idly to himself if Port ever actually manage to answer any questions.

The process was efficient to be sure, he guess anyways when Port wasn't involved, enough time was given to each group and each group was small enough where those who didn't care for crowds wouldn't feel too nervous or out of place to ask a question that they might have otherwise not if the group was any larger.

Eventually, it came time for his group of five to enter and he was immediately greeted with the short-statured Professor Port.

"Greeting's Applicants, I am Peter Port, a Professor at Beacon academy as well as an Acclaimed Huntsman. You have all come here today to test yourself to see if you have what it takes to become one of the fine defenders of Remnant. I say you are all quite worthy already, the mere act of showing up, in my eyes, shows that you have not just the desire but the passion to become some of the finest this world has ever seen."

Jaune smiled at the speech Port continued to ramble on with, as Port talked seemingly to hear his own voice a functionary came forward and handed each applicant a clipboard with a short questionnaire on it. This wasn't the test just some quick information that the facility needed to have on hand before writing the test in case they passed and moved on to the second stage of the examination.

The questionnaire did in a way eliminate those who came into this wholely unprepared because it asks if you have your Arua unlocked and if so do you know what your Semblance is and so on and so forth.

Having your Aura unlocked didn't, however, give you any extra likelihood in passing, it simply eliminated a step down the line.

Jaune quickly filled in everything that he was able too, which basically came down to everything excluding the portion about Aura's and Semblance's and handed his clipboard back before any of the others in the room.

By the time the last person finished filling his clipboard in Peter had just about come to the end of his longwinded speech.

The functionary who was now being pitied by everyone else in the room did not wait for the end of the speech and instead motioned everyone into a large hall where those who entered the building before them were sat at tables, their heads bowed over them, the quiet scratching of pencils could be heard meticulously writing away.

Jaune's group was shown to different table's near the middle of the room and with only a few instructions the functionary had everyone take a seat and begin taking their test as he retreated to where Professor Port waited, ready to begin his speech once again as another group was let inside.

With a smile that he kept to himself, he opened up his examination and set himself to work.

The written test was structured carefully, a person who would only write it a handful of times before eventually passing or giving up permanently would likely not notice how well conceived it was.

The test wasn't meant to be able to be completed, as the scale and difficulty of the questions became increasingly more difficult the further you progressed. The initial questions would be simple common knowledge fair that a grade schooler could answer with confidence but then would come the questions about governmental laws and how they did or did not apply to Huntsmen. After that came questions about Grimm, a section that would seem simple and straight forward, asking questions about weakness's or behavior but all the questions were about less common varieties of Grimm, sometimes even mentioning breeds that haven't been seen in over a century.

Simply put the test was made to be impossible to achieve a perfect score, that is if you weren't taking it for the umpteenth thousandth time. Jaune knew every answer and if he wanted to, and occasionally did, could achieve a perfect result, which would actually result in a failed outcome because he was assumed to be cheating even if it was impossible to prove.

Jaune took his time with his answers, as the test also had carefully monitored time limit that was a benchmark as well.

It was another part of the reason why groups that were let in in such small numbers but everyone wrote the test in the same room with thirty-minute gaps between starting points. Focusing on the test let a person become distracted and forgetful so that after enough time had passed and someone stood up to hand in their exam the others still writing would become flustered if they thought a person in their group was finishing well ahead of themselves.

Huntsmen needed to be calm and confident in what they are doing but they also need to be able to know when they need to stop and in a roundabout fashion this written test added in those extra elements.

Jaune knew from experience those extra factors could have major implications on the final result but more often than not it was simply information that was recorded for later use.

Filling out his sheets Jaune paid closer attention to how many groups had entered the room with people standing and leaving, only to return and take different seats elsewhere before finally standing himself and turning in his exam. He had only answered around seventy percent of the questions, after handing in the test he was led out of the room for roughly five minutes allowed to have a drink and a bathroom break before he was led back into the same room and given a new place to sit and was told by another functionary to wait and he would be called upon later.

Jaune found the whole system quite enjoyable because he knew what to look for and pay attention to, seeing the mounting anxiety on the faces of those still furiously trying to answer some of the impossible questions before inevitably giving up and moving on.

Jaune had to wait the better part of an hour before he was finally taken to another room, one very large and spacious, in the center of the room was a familiar sight of a Huntsman training ring. The room was empty of any other test attendees, as each took a turn sequentially and with no knowledge of what the physical test would be by observing any others.

Just because the room was empty of attendees did not mean he was alone though as the functionary that led him there was still present and patiently waiting next to the door they entered from and before him stood the strict form of one Glynda Goodwitch, who so far had not even made it apparent she noticed him entering the room.

"Jaune Arc," Glynda spoke at once, the silence of the empty room made her voice stronger and more commanding than it already was. "You have passed the written portion of the test with admirable marks and have been elected to processed onto the physical portion of the examination."

"Thank you for this opportunity." Jaune said courteously.

"No need to thank me, this opportunity is entirely made by your performance so far. Now before we begin I would simply like to verify a few things from the form you initially filled out. First being that you, in fact, do not have your Aura unlocked, is that correct?"

"Yes, that is correct."

"Very good, next you wrote that your physical training was all self-done, no facility training was done whatsoever?"

"No, I come from Ansel and while the town is large it does not have any dedicated facilities or certified people who could be credited as training sources."

"What about your father, Nicholas Arc, he is an accredited Huntsman and surely must have had some input on your training?"

"He did not, he is actually against his children becoming Huntsmen."

"I see. Very well, thank you and I shall assume the answer for your combat training that you are similarly self-trained?"

"Yes."

"Very well thank you for your answers. Please step up to the table and I will go over the equipment you will need to wear during this test." Glynda motioned to the table in front of herself.

Jaune stepped forward automatically across the table from Glynda as she went over the devices on the table, or more specifically the one he would be using. It was a simple harness with seven devices attached to it at certain points. When struck sufficiently hard enough the device would light up signaling a hit that would account for an Aura hit that was equivalent to a twenty percent loss in Aura.

The test wasn't made to keep all the lights inactive but instead, see how long you could survive before five of the seven had been activated.

"Your opponents will be a team of third-year Beacon students who will be handicapped to fight you unarmed as well as unable to strike anywhere but the devices on the harness, every two minutes a new member of the team will join the fight against you. They have their Aura unlocked and sufficient mastery in control of it as well so you will be free to use the weapons you have brought with you. The fight will end after one of these three conditions have been met. One, fifteen minutes have elapsed. Two, five of your seven sensors had been activated. Three, you have eliminated all four opponents through Aura loss or ring out. Also if you leave the combat stage you will have a sensor activated each time and for every thirty seconds you remain out of the combat area another will activate." Glynda finished her explanation and simply stood near the stage afterward prepared to observe the fight that was likely to a one-sided affair.

After fitting the harness comfortably over his clothing and making sure it did not impair his access to either his sword or bandolier he stepped up onto the stage. "I'm ready to begin."

A nod from Glynda was all he received as his team of opponents filed in from another room. The first to enter the room was also the one to enter the ring across from him. His opponent was a short man, likely barely reaching five feet in height but what he lacked in height was made up elsewhere as he was as broad as he was tall.

The fight began immediately, as the shorter man stepped into the ring, a buzzer sounding immediately, done so to catch the applicant off guard, expecting a countdown or something and teaching them a valuable lesson at the cost of a valuable sensor.

Jaune allowed the man to close, not feigning surprise but instead welcoming the attack fully, allowing the assumedly more skilled fighter an easy first blow and activating one of his sensors within moments of the fight starting. As his opponent stepped away to ready another attack though Jaune grabbed him by the shoulder and with a quick twist and spin sent his opponent crashing to the floor outside the ring, having only been just inside the ring himself when the match started, giving his opponent no room to prevent his fall to the outside of the ring.

The shock of seeing a Beacon student eliminated so quickly had the room shocked into silence before Glynda composed herself after that brief moment of confusion as to what had exactly happened before calling the next fighter to enter the stage.

As the second figure stood across from him, this one being a man of similar height and build to himself, Jaune pulled his blade from it's sheath and with a quick tug pulled out a knife as well, holding his sword in his right hand and in his left was a knife, held in a reversed grip, making the projectile weapon instead be a stabbing instrument.

After seeing what had happened to his teammate the second fighter approached more cautiously, eyeing Jaune's two blades respectfully and keeping his distance.

The fight between Jaune and his new opponent was, unfortunately, a battle of time, the first attacker was meant to blitz an unexpecting opponent and activate a couple sensors and then play it safe and wait for the second member of his team to enter where they could keep his attention split and pick up some more sensor hits, potentially ending the fight before their third teammate could be added to the fight.

Jaune knew of this plan and even acknowledged it as quite smart, though it had its flaws, the biggest being to interrupt the flow.

Removing the first fighter from the match, typically the best close quarters fighter on the team would leave the rest of the team less confident in the success of the plan and they would then make mistakes.

Mistakes that Jaune could capitalize on while at the same time not standing out in any exceptional fashion that would cause Glynda to overanalyze his performance.

Knowing that the second fighter wouldn't make an aggressive move because of their plan falling apart and he was simply waiting for his teammate to restart the strategy Jaune made his move, swinging aggressively with his sword, making his swing overextend slightly and baiting this opponent to attempt a strike. The strike was slow to be thrown though and by the time it had to reach the sensor it was aimed at Jaune had already shifted his balance away making his opponent end up off balanced in return, the simple mistake costing the man a fair portion of his Aura as Jaune swept backward, keeping a firm grip on his throwing knife and punching it into the small of the mans back, causing him to stumble forward at the force of the impact and instinctively check his Aura, staring at the bar on his scroll in concern as it sank to below half in a single hit.

Jaune followed up his very precise attack with several quick chops of his sword, each very sloppy in comparison to his quick knife attack, making it and his throw of his first opponent look more and more like flukes than what they really were. He had to tow a fine line between, looking entirely unskilled and not entirely decimating his opponents.

Eventually, time elapsed and it became a two verse one fight and immediately the pair showed a more aggressive stance, pushing to his sides and making it difficult for him to successfully defend against either. The chops and wide slashes of his sword deterred one of his opponents successfully, never allowing him to approach close enough to strike any of his sensors, his other side was less well protected.

His knife having a harder time dissuading that opponent and allowing him to activate Jaune's two most exposed sensors, putting him at the cusp of losing the fight though now the fight became harder for his opponents. Of his three remaining sensors that could still be triggered two were situated on his back which was impossible to reach as he used the edge of the stage to effectively cut off access to them and the only remaining sensor on the front of his body was right behind his very dangerous sword arm.

His positioning did leave him open for a suicidal tackle to take him down from the stage and while it would cost the Beacon students another fighter they would be successful, and if Jaune was being honest it is exactly what they should do, he had already embarrassed them in front of their combat instructor and they should have simply done whatever was necessary to win at this point.

As his third opponent joined the fight Jaune felt the added pressure immediately but continued to successfully fend off his three opponents, making some questionably close moves that very nearly sent him over the edge of the stage but always managing to correct his footing in time to stay in the fight.

Sweat poured from himself as he fought tooth and nail, using all kinds of energy to continually use ineffective attacks and panicked strikes. His moves were practiced to be sloppy and inaccurate, to use up his energy needlessly. So the fight gradually came to his loss simply of the basis of himself running out of stamina.

The fight ended roughly past the ten minute marker as he made a quick lunge forward, the surprising move looking again like a well-timed fluke rather than a well-aimed strike, the hit was solid and direct though and tore away a healthy chunk of the freshest fighters Aura before Jaune pulled back his blade, which drooped towards the floor almost dragging itself as he sought to return to a defensive posture his foot slid off the edge of the stage and one of his sensors triggered, the fight ending.

Jaune pretended not to notice immediately and stepped back up to take another swing only to find both his legs and arms to be frozen in place. "Ack, what?"

"I'm sorry Mr. Arc, but you now have five sensors activated and the fight is over."

Jaune looked down across his form, eyes going to each individual light before a look of relief crossed his face. "Oh, thank god." With that, he felt his mobility return to him and immediately he dropped both his sword and knife and laid down on the stage gasping for breath.

Glynda regarded the exhausted man on the stage for a moment before turning her attention to her students, each looking sheepishly embarrassed from their performance. "You four are dismissed from this for the remainder of the day, and I want a report from each of you on how and why exactly this fight went so poorly in your favor." She watched as the four filed out of the room, heads hung low in embarrassment before turning her attention to her applicant who was now sitting at the edge of the stage being helped to remove the harness by the functionary.

"Mr. Arc, I must applaud you for an exemplary performance. While you clearly lack training with your weapons, that can be remedied with time, what is most apparent to me through this short session is the fact that you have a strong understanding of tactics and the ability to exploit opportunities. Few attendees to these trials manage to eliminate an opponent or survive until all enemies have entered the stage, you have done both and without the assistance of an Aura or Semblance."

"So, does that mean I pass?" Jaune looked up from his seated position, still breathing quite heavily as he used a towel to wipe away sweat.

"Yes, Mr. Arc that means you have passed." Glynda gave the exhausted young man sitting on the stage a faint smile before motioning towards a door leading from the room. "You can continue your rest and recuperation through that doorway, when you are ready to leave one of the Beacon staff will provide you with the paperwork necessary for you to complete to Attend Beacon's initiation next year as well as Unlocking your Aura and providing you with Address's of business's around Vale that will provide introductory training in Aura Control as well as help with your Semblance if necessary."

"Thank you, Ms. Goodwitch."

"That would be Prof. Goodwitch to you now."

"Oh. Right, Thank you Professor Goodwitch."

* * *

 **Later that same day, Jaune's Hotel Room.**

* * *

Jaune stared into the mirror with appreciation at the fine work done by the craftsmen at _**'Semblance Stitches'**_ Once again proving that the Lien he pays them being well worth the seemingly exorbitant price.

The original business owner had been a retired Huntsman who's Semblance had never been all that useful in fighting Grimm, the ability to permanently stitch any two things together was surprisingly useless aside from making repairs to weapons or equipment in the field. But in his retirement, he had found a much better use for it and had begun to tailor Huntsman clothing.

Through practice and persistence, he improved his craft so that his specially tailored clothing was not only stronger than normal clothing but also more durable and offered a wider range of motion for those wearing it. All drastic perks for those in the Huntsman industry.

Now though the man who had started the business had long since past from this world but he did have a fairly rare trait as well, his Semblance was hereditary meaning every member of the family had a strong chance to have it after they unlock their Aura. With every new member of the family being born the potential to share the same Semblance the business had prospered greatly and any children joining the family business would be allowed a civilian License for Aura activation so that they could use their Semblance.

Jaune's new clothing was still a bit bulky for his current size but he knew his next and final bit of growth in height would have him filling it out perfectly and even if it didn't currently fit as snug as he would like it it wasn't so loose that it was uncomfortable.

From the ground up Jaune wore his classic Sneakers, never finding a more suitable replacement for the comfortable and versatile footwear, a marked example of sometimes the best answer is the simple and obvious one.

Next came his pants and a stark change over his old pair of Jeans. Replacing them was a pair of black combat pants, that had optional kneepads he could attach or remove if required, he never found a valid use for them in his many lives and typically went without them. The main reason he upgraded from his more comfortable Jeans to the bulkier Combat pants was the storage space, having pockets built directly into his clothing instead of exterior pouches that could get in his way was a huge plus, though no Zippers, everything was kept where he placed it with Velcro flaps.

Next was his torso which saw the greatest change, gone was his hoodie, it was carefully stored away in his duffle bag, as well as the heavy and bulky armor he wore in the past. In its place was a simple black tank top that sat underneath a white leather breastplate. The breastplate was a simple piece of equipment that could easily be slipped over his head with ease and was held in place just by its shoulder straps. Above his left breast, the Arc family emblem was the only visible design or decoration that could be seen.

Simple and functional, no unnecessary pieces, his outfit was a complete item that provided him with everything he needed.

He wished he could say the same for his weaponry though, it was still only what he had used during his test earlier today but he had already worked to remedy that.

He immediately went from the Beacon facility with his new credentials in hand to a workshop that would complete his order in a quick fashion, not only would it be quick but it would also be very well made.

For now though he would make do as always with what he had purchased this morning, it wasn't like the Sword and knives were subpar equipment they simply weren't his end goal.

With one final appreciative and ego boosting glance in his mirror he pulled out his scroll and started the next step of his plan now that he had his entrance into Beacon sorted out as well as his Aura Unlocked.

Next came dealing with Cinder.

* * *

 **I have seen a few comments on Roman being, well less than competent, In the original show he clearly let his identity become known before he arrived in Vale which is a clear indication that he was not so careful when left to his own devices at maintaining his anonymity.  
**

 **Jaune steps up with his future information provided by his own Roman Torchwick to prevent the younger, dumber version of himself from making the same mistakes and essentially letting Jaune utilize him for his own purposes.**

 **So for those of you who think I'm making Roman a bit too incompetent right now, that's only because I think before he reached Vale he had been dumb, only stepping up his game after a few setbacks.**

 **So Jaune now rocks a very basic and simple outfit, one that looks visually very bland in comparison to what I have read others describe for their characters when giving them equipment or clothing upgrades.**

 **Personally, as someone who does a lot of wilderness hiking I could not imagine how awful most Huntsmen clothing would be to operate in and I think for Jaune being as old as he is would settle happily with something very basic looking as long as it is exceptionally well made.**

 **Also I would like to and wish I could credit the story I read forever ago that gave me my inspiration for the Tailor business with the hereditary sewing Semblance, I thought that was a genius idea though I did scale it back from the original authors story giving the clothing extra traits as well, mine are simply stronger and more durable than most clothing.**

 **If I ever find that story again I will come back to it and credit it properly.**

 **Aside from Jaune's new duds, he's also gotten himself a legitimately activated Aura done of behalf of a member of Beacon staff as well as written acceptance to attend Beacon the following year.**

 **Now we go from a chapter where Jaune had to act like a novice to one where he gets to display something a little more advanced.**

 **Anyways I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and as always, let me know what you think, even if it just to tell me that I suck at words.**


	46. Chapter 46

The battlefield laid out like an intricate puzzle to be deciphered.

Each scuff of misplaced dirt telling as much, if not more than a small crater in the ground only a few feet away. Each and every clue helped to form a greater picture of what had exactly occurred here.

The picture was currently incomplete but the ending was very clear. Marcus Black and a teenager that bore a striking resemblance to the Assasin were both dead, and the source of their combined deaths was missing.

Both men had received multiple injuries that would have hindered their ability to fight effectively but the fatal wound that finished each was a simple stab, the entry point of the wound being a weapon with a wide, flat edge, long enough to cleanly piece through an opponent and have the exit wound be identical in size.

How the fight began as well as what occurred in the middle was a confusing mess to understand.

The fight had begun near the house at the top of the hill.

Originally the fight appeared to be between the man recognized as Marcus Black due to the deeper and heavier impressions in the ground and the missing third.

The fight was a quick and brutal struggle as the ground around the house was especially torn to pieces as this was where the greatest amount of Dust had been expelled by one or both of the fighters.

The unknown third person was clearly the superior fighter as the markings on the ground indicated. Marcus Black's tracks, those that could be confidently assigned to him anyways were always the ones being pushed back, skidding across the ground like he was being pushed backward forcibly or being forced to dodge away, the scruff on the ground indicating so.

After the first two combatants had been engaged for a few brief, fierce moments the third fighter and second corpse had joined the fight.

It had taken some time to find where the third fighter had started from but when it was discovered it was an exceptional hiding place, one that would have guaranteed whoever was hiding there a perfect opportunity to attack from behind, which was seemingly what happened but the marking on the ground did not give a clear picture on who exactly was taken by surprise. No dust debris was anywhere in the vicinity which likely meant the pair had come up worse on that exchange, making it very clear whoever the missing man was a league above the pair in terms of skill.

From there the fight had turned into an unfortunate mess of explosions, reducing any information that could have been gleaned from the rest of the battlefield into assumptions and wild guesses.

Spent dust shells could be found with little effort and matched either of the two dead men's weapons, but there were a few items strewn about that clearly were from neither man. The remains of at least one flashbang had been discovered as well as bullet holes that matched neither man's weapons.

The ending of the fight held a mystery though as the two dead men seemed to begin fighting each other as much, if not more than their attacker. If it had been a ploy to trick the third man it had clearly failed.

Cinder looked over the site with a look of both respect and disappointment. She respected any person who could easily handle any many who had a reputation like Marcus Black's, whoever the person was who killed him would be a powerful pawn to her plan's she simply needed to find this person, though that is where the disappointment came in.

Whoever it was who attacked Marcus Black and the young man who fought beside him had cleaned up after themselves expertly, making finding out who it was with the little information the scene provided likely being impossible but she would ask around from her sources if anyone had heard of a fighter who might match what little information the site provided.

The lack of a skilled and most notably reputably tough fighter did leave her at a bit of a disadvantage for the next stop on her journey but as luck would have it she had discovered an easily manipulated ally with a powerful Semblance.

Her eye's looked to where her companion stood, Emerald had been an incredible discovery and had been so willingly manipulated into serving herself willingly, it was a comforting thought to have, knowing she had a minion that would throw away there own life for yours.

"Come, Emerald, there is nothing to be learned here further and we must continue with the plan.

"Wait, we are still going ahead, wasn't the reason we came out to this backwoods shack to recruit another fighter capable of helping us?"

"Marcus Black was going to add to our party, yes, but he was hardly required. He was only considered because he was located along the way to our real destination, the two of us will be more than enough to deal with anything."

* * *

 **Day's later, an empty stretch of road.**

* * *

An explosion, one made to cause noise more than cause harm rocked the quiet landscape, effectively deafening, temporarily, anyone in the vicinity.

The blast was followed up by another, though this one sent no debris, heat or sound instead it washed over the surface of the ground, turning the hard packed road into a soft quagmire of sticky mud that trapped the feet and made movement difficult, a problem that grew progressively worse as multiple small explosions continued.

The trapped travelers, deafened and disoriented by the first blast before being slowed by the second could do nothing but watch as around them a mixture of Dust charges ignited, trapping them further as walls of rock rose up to surround them on three sides.

There one free open side was not a route to safety as a blast that eclipsed the first in volume ignited, the two targets of the explosion only had a moment to admire the beauty of the mixture of dusts before they were both struck fully, the hit being so powerful that they were ripped from the ground that had entrapped their legs and thrown against the earthen walls that then collapsed in the face of the blast.

The Aura of both having flickered and died before they had even been lifted off their feet by the blast and the damage just continued to pile on.

Jaune watched from a safe distance as his trap once again made efficient work of one of his greatest enemies. Pocketing the scroll that controlled the explosive devices he dropped down to the road and began to run toward where the explosions were, having positioned himself far enough away where the blasts wouldn't affect him but he could still fully observe what was happening.

As he neared he slowed his pace, carefully circumventing the ruined road as to not find his legs trapped in the quagmire of mud. Now was the most crucial part of his plan to deal with Cinder, he needed the body, without a body with his sword sticking out of it he could not say with confidence that Cinder had not survived.

He hated putting his own life at risk so casually but he had no other options and he readied himself if somehow Cinder and Emerald had enough left in them to manage a fight.

Stepping past the first device he had activated he looked at it for a brief moment in appreciation at the hard work the Weiss's from his other lives had put into formulating new dust combinations and effects.

A simple green wind dust crystal set off in conjunction with multiple white acceleration crystals made a surprisingly effective disorientation device, anyone in the proximity of its explosion would be deaf for long minutes and depending on how close could have to deal with a severe case of vertigo as their eardrums were buffeted so hard those affected would lose any semblance of balance.

A frighteningly powerful combination that would not be designed for several decades.

The ground was similarly crafted. The older and more experienced Weiss was allowed to become the more clever her concoctions became. Earth crystals, Ice crystals, time dilation crystals and a few acceleration ones all trigger in perfect sequential order.

The order was the most important part, anything triggered out of pattern would result in a huge star of ice and dirt being created in a single location, being effectively useless.

He needed to collect any remains of the devices once he was finished here as to prevent anyone who came across them from potentially piecing together a device that would not exist for several decades. It had happened before and caused him a headache then so now he was meticulous about cleaning up both this fight scene as well as the one at the home of Marcus Black.

Gradually he picked his way through the cloud of dust left over from the giant dust explosion, being careful to avoid stepping on the road, his eye's scanning everything carefully looking for his quarry before spotting what he was looking for.

Crumpled in a heap at the base of a strong Oak tree was Cinder Fall, or what appeared to be her remains, burns disfigured much of her body making identifying her difficult or it would be if it wasn't for the pale skin in the unburned area's or what remained of her black hair.

Jaune crept toward the body, keeping a safe distance from it as he inspected the ground around it carefully before scowling. He looked away from the body and searched his surrounding with an expert eye, having to do this in to many of his lives that his repeated failure had long since lost its charm and now he was simply annoyed that the blast that should be more than capable of killing a Huntsmen seemed to be frustratingly insufficient to deal with Cinder and Emerald.

That wasn't to say that the blast was ineffective as he eventually spotted what he was looking for, displaced ground that did not match up with the direction the blast had sent all the rubble.

Ignoring the fake body on the ground he followed the trail he had discovered, only needing to travel a few feet as he rounded a tree and spotted a struggling Emerald dragging the unconscious form of Cinder desperately away from him.

"Step away from the woman and you might find the luck that kept you alive, to continue."

"Leave us alone."

Jaune watched as Emerald struggled visibly under the weight of Cinder, the movements were not being acted and the form of Cinder was displacing ground as it had been dragged. "I'm afraid I can't do that, I have a strong need to see her permanently dead." Jaune pulled out the same blade he had used at his Beacon application exam, the same Blade that had claimed the lives of both Marcus and Mercury Black, the sight of the blade causing Emeralds eyes to widen as she no doubt knew what roughly the weapon was that had killed the two men.

"You killed the assassin and that boy?"

"Yes, and please no more questions, either stand aside or die alongside a woman who does not give a damn about you."

"She saved me, She took me in/ _She saved me, She took me in"_

Jaune spoke in unison with Emeralds tired and predictable defense, the same one she used in every life that trap seemed to spare her life. "Cinder Fall is an intelligent and cunning criminal, smart enough to hide so well the world outside of her circle of influence doesn't even know she exists. She cares for no one and nothing other than herself, the only reason she treated you with the kindness you so desperately need is that she figured out what your Semblance was and knew it would be useful." Jaune didn't need an answer as he had already known the broader details from this exact scenario in his other lives, no matter what he might say it never made a difference though, Emerald always laid down her life to protect Cinder.

Jaune took a step forward, the result being a bullet ping off his Aura followed by a second, the third never came as a fiercely thrown knife knocked Emerald's pistol from her hand and yielded a shocked yelp of surprise and pain. Jaune took another step forward.

"Please, please leave us alone."

To this Jaune had nothing to say as he took another step standing over both Women and with a scowl of distaste drove his blade into Cinders chest. The unconscious woman not even reacting, only silently bleeding out.

"Nooooo."

A desperate hand reached up and tried futilely to stem the flow of blood from the wound, not that that was possible as Cinder bleed from the heart, her life was already gone.

Ragged, agonizing crying was all that could be heard as Jaune pulled his blade back and motioned toward Emerald.

"You, don't need to die here, but I also won't leave an enemy alive." His words brought an abrupt silence to the area, the weight of what he meant being clear enough to pierce through the grief of Emerald's mind. "So what are you." Jaune held his blade ready, expecting the need to use it once again, he hoped he wouldn't have to but he knew how this scenario always went.

There was hatred behind Emeralds eye's hatred that would never go away, he could see them working desperately to find a way to kill him, the lids of her eyes narrowed in an instant and a second weapon was brought forth, a pistol identical to the first, though this time it had its blade swung out and a desperate slash was made toward his throat, only to glance harmlessly off his own sword.

"That is unfortunate, but not unexpected." Jaune's blade sank into Emerald's chest, the wound being identical to Cinders.

Jaune hated this moment, he hated every time Cinder and Emerald survived his explosive trap, he hated having to kill them like this, it felt wrong in every sense of the word but it was also something that must be done.

He looked at his sword for a moment before dropping it in disgust, at least for the moment being unable to look at the weapon that had to complete the grisly task.

Leaning down he took Cinders right arm in hand and pulled off the glove, it had seen some damage from the explosion but it was still mostly intact and because it was he took one of his throwing knives and used it to cut apart the piece of cloth, only stopping as the material began to ooze a viscous black fluid, signifying that Grimm that existed within it was dead.

* * *

 **Vale, three months before Beacon Initiation.**

* * *

Jaune was adjusting the strap's on his newly completed weapons, the craftsman who had done the work standing nearby watching his work be appreciated by the man who was now tightening the final few straps.

If Jaune had felt he paid a ridiculous sum of Lien for his clothing from _**'Semblance Stitches'**_ then he wasn't exactly how he would classify this bill.

Huntsmen equipment was always expensive and Jaune never skipped using the best materials he could afford but this time with his extra Lien he felt he had definitely overspent.

His gear looked simple from an outside perspective, a single armguard on his left arm. The armguard was deceptively heavy, weighing around fifteen kilo's that served as both a defensive plate but also expanded out into the shape of a kite shield, much how Crocea Mors scabbard did. The expanding plate wasn't the only secret inside the armguard, it had a hidden shotgun mechanism similar to Yang's Ember Celica, though Jaune's only had four shots inside his weapon, four different dust charges that he could cycle through. The final hidden element of his Armguard was a panel that opened up and delivered a single-use flash of light, being several times more powerful than that of a flashbang but the drawback came from if the charge was used then it was a time-consuming process taking apart the armguard by hand to replace the spent components.

His armguard was the primary tool he used to defeat his opponents as it had been developed over his many lifetimes of success's, being improved upon further whenever he discovered a new way to do so.

Aside from his armguard gone was his bandolier of throwing knives. The sturdy and reliable blades were instead incorporated into his leather breastplate, each was securely fastened into carefully made sleeves that he had requested made in his clothing by the tailor, all four sat securely behind his back and could be easily accessed by reaching under his breastplate and pulling down, freeing them from their sheaths individually.

On his left hip in its plain leather scabbard sat the same sword he had purchased the day he arrived in Vale, the very one he used to end four lives already.

The blade had been left entirely unchanged barring a new crossguard, gone was the simple and functional Iron rod and in its place was a replica of Crocea Mors Golden crossguard. The shape and design had been matched perfectly by the blacksmith with the aid of pictures from his scroll to flesh out the intricate scrollwork.

The blade at his hip could easily be mistaken for Crocea Mors at a simple glance, the difference only becoming noticeable when a person would look at the crossguard closely.

Crocea Mors guard was golden in color while this newly made crossguard had been stained repeatedly, and expensively to appear perfectly Lilac in color.

His new blade had been given a selfish name long ago by him, one he never shared with anyone else but as it rested at his hip he smiled appreciatively as he patted the blade named **_Celica Mors_**.

One final tug of his last armguard strap and he nodded, accepting that everything fit properly.

"Everything is perfect, thank you once again for the work."

"Not at all, I was just doing my job and to be fair, what you had planned for that Armguard I honestly just wanted to see if it was possible, I was pleasantly surprised with how well it worked out, honestly it has given me so many ideas."

"Well, I'm glad to have helped in that regard then."

"Though I do have to ask one final time, are you sure you want to continue using that sword. I mean there is nothing wrong with it, I looked it over as best as I could when changing the Hilt for you but there are better swords out there."

"Oh I'm sure there are, but this one is well made as you said and beyond that, there is another reason I'm keeping this one." Jaune smiled as he knew the fortitude of this blade, he had purchased it in every life after a point, he wasn't sure any longer when that point was but he knew this blade with the exception of Crocea Mors it was his most stalwart companion. "That being said how long will you need to make the adjustments I mentioned when I bring you the other weapon?"

"If you described it's mechanism as well as you did with your armguard and the pictures you showed me are accurate, it should only take a couple hour's since you already paid me to have everything else ready to go when you return."

"Sounds perfect, I'll be back in a couple weeks then."

Jaune stepped out of the Huntsman weapon craftsman's shop into the bright light of mid-afternoon and for the first time in a long while he felt comfortable, the familiar weight on his left arm from his armguard as well as the blade at his hip, though he did feel an itch, an absence across his back that still needed to be filled, it was time to return home and collect his oldest weapon once again and also set up his meeting with one Roman Torchwick.

* * *

 **Ansel, one week later.**

* * *

Jaune arrived home to little fanfare, he hadn't informed his family he was coming home, it was a simple surprise when he would walk in the door in the next hour as those who were still living at home sat down for Supper.

Sapphron was already gone, having made her way to Argus already, the others who were old enough to leave having not gone quite as far though, only moving out to live on their own in Ansel.

He arrived dressed as shabbily as he could, gone was his expensive combat clothing, his newly crafted weaponry.

Everything had been left back in Vale, he arrived home dressed much the same as he had the day he left, jeans, sneakers, and his ever-present hoodie, there was a notable exception though as at his hip was a new blade. Celica Mors had to be left behind as well, as with the hilt replacement it definitely looked to be more than something he could have afforded.

In its place was a short sword, resting in a worn and beaten scabbard, well maintained but having seen much use and abuse through its years.

With his look complete, Jaune headed home, looking the part of a poor man who simply could not afford better.

It was something he needed to do, Nicholas Arc was still against his children being Huntsmen but when Jaune proves it to him that he was capable of passing Beacon's entrance exam on his first attempt he relents a little and would gift him Crocea Mors, refusing to let his son attend the academy with the disgrace of a weapon he currently wore at his hip.

It was an act of deception on his part and Jaune hated it but he still viewed it as a necessary evil, as it was still less evil than him just walking off with the weapon in the dead of night. Sure his father always forgave him for doing that but that did little to ease a conscience that knew it would have to do it all over again in his next life.

He wouldn't stay long in Ansel, he was here to collect his weapon and contact Roman.

With Crocea Mors gathered all that was left was Roman.

Sneaking out of the Arc family home was as easy as ever as well as entering the CCT relay after hours, the key and passcode he had used so many other times granting him immediate access.

With a quick interface with his scroll Jaune connected.

"I was beginning to think I had finally found a number you couldn't reach, I guess I'm not so lucky."

Jaune smirk at Roman's remark. "You couldn't imagine how hard of an effort it would take on your part to be rid of me."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm starting to get that feeling that avoiding you would be more effort than I care to invest, and truth be told you have been helpful."

"Helpful enough for you to agree to a meetup and a job?" The line went silent for several long moments, though the long pause was something he knew to expect, Roman in every life enjoyed pretending to be hard to get but he always agreed, his curiosity if nothing else getting the better of him.

"I guess I owe you enough for that, though I'm not doing the job for free, we will see at the meetup if you can even afford me."

"Trust me when I say this Mr. Torchwick, I know exactly how valuable you are."

"Oh, cryptic, I like that. So where is this meetup happening?"

"Vale, place called the Club, I'm sure you're familiar with the owner. Be there at the end of the month, I'll make the arrangements so that Junior will be expecting both of us." Jaune let the line go dead, knowing Roman would be there as he always was, having kept the meeting the same as every other life when he would arrange for the criminal to facilitate Ruby's entrance into Beacon and then Blake reconciling with her team. Though now that he had other plans for Roman and if his memories were restored those events might change.

He knew that and trusted the risk to be worth it, he needed to know what to expect when a person's memories were restored so he could plan for how to meet with Yang.

* * *

 **Tidyfrog: So this is the last chapter Blackwal sent to me during the Christmas/New Years time frame. He has sent me an update for another story of his and has assured me that he is working on the next chapter of this as well.**

 **So I say, hopefully, to expect further updates soon, though now that my work is done I'm taking a slight break for a week or two in regards to being a Beta. My eyes need a break.**

* * *

 **Crocea Mors - Latin Translation roughly means Yellow Death.**

 **Ember Celica - Latin Translation roughly means Heavenly Flame or Celestial Flame.**

 **Celica Mors - Latin Translation roughly means Heavenly Death or Celestial Death.**

 **Jaune is looking ever so ready with his new duds as well as his weapons being completed, he even has a name for his new blade, the Latin translation ended up being a thing of beauty I personally thought.**

 **A Heavenly or Celestial Death, a fitting name of a weapon that is credited to killing Jaune's first real enemy. I don't know what you guys think but when I was doing some reading in preparation for naming the blade I just fell in love with that, it was simply to perfect and it also pays homage to Yang simultaneously.**

 **So I did skip over some details in this chapter, mainly the fight between Jaune and the Black's but I felt that fight would have dragged on in the readers eyes if I went into it in detail so I choose instead to use Cinder as a way to reconstruct the fight and clearly show just how seemingly superior Jaune looked in the eyes of his adversary, even if she had not witnessed the fight only just the aftermath.**

 **So next chapter is being worked on but as Tidy said she is taking a couple week break from being my Beta, or anyones for that matter by the way it sounds. I'm personally hoping that she finishes the next chapter of 'Life after the Heroics' before she completely disappears because I know people have been waiting for that for a while.**

 **Anyways, as always let me know what you think you guys, even if it is only to tell me I suck at the words.**


	47. Chapter 47

**Vale, Two months before Beacon begins.**

* * *

Jaune sat inside the 'Club', blending in with the late afternoon crowd as the venue became increasingly louder and more cramped, soon the door would be blocked off and a queue would be forced to form outside, the line would persist late into the evening and never actually completely empty.

Those that wanted to be inside would either arrive early much as he had or never have a chance to make it inside unless they could prove profitable.

The bouncers that watched the doors had a keen eye on how to discern who were here to spend money and who was here to take up space.

Due to his time of arrival, he did not have to worry about that and had been simply waved in with a group of girls that were honestly to rowdy for how early it was still in the day. The man at the door probably guessing from Jaune's relaxed but aware expression that he was in some way in charge of the group.

Once inside he had ordered a few drinks for himself, ones that he would drink slowly, as he kept a careful watch on the counter where Junior stood.

It was still a few nights until Roman was supposed to be here for their meeting, and Jaune wasn't here for the criminal either, he was on the watch for Neo.

The diminutive criminal was an unknown factor to him, one that he wanted to at least assuage in advance of the meeting he had arranged with Roman.

She was fiercely loyal to Roman and he was to likewise to her, so he wanted her at the least distracted during his meeting with Roman.

Roman was the test run, to see what exactly occurred when he touched someone who was supposed to regain all their previous memories from their other lives they lived alongside him. Would the effect be instantaneous and complete, the person who they are currently accepting the new memories willingly or would there be a struggle?

There were other factors to be worried about as well but he needed to know how long the process took and what, if any, reaction might occur.

Neo attacking him while thinking she was protecting Roman and then Roman calling her off could cause issues down the line with their relationship. As much as he did not have a real connection with Roman he didn't want to mess up whatever the pair of criminals had so he was forced to come up with an unfortunately awful plan, he assumed awful because he didn't have one yet.

Neo needed an incentive to not be around during their meeting then he would give her one, he couldn't exactly request Roman to meet him alone, as he was never alone, Neo even if she wasn't present was always close at hand, prepared to intervene if necessary.

As hour's slowly ticked away Jaune was about to give up for the night when his eyes that had been scanning between the primary entrance and the secondary ones, the ones people like Neo or Roman might use was drawn to the stage where the DJ wearing a giant bear head went about his work with all the attitude and flair of a man who loved what he was doing.

The Bear headed DJ only drew his attention for a moment as his practiced eyes looked behind him, doing a quick double take to make sure it wasn't a weird refraction of light that had caused the flash he thought he had seen. A flash very reminiscent of Neo's teleport.

Jaune smiled when after several seconds of watching, the same effect was never repeated and to truly complete his elevated mood he notice not just the figure of Neo gliding her way through the growing crowd on the dance floor but Roman following along behind, not being able to slip between bodies like his accomplice he instead bullied and pushed his way through, causing momentary disruption everywhere he passed.

It was a moment of good luck and a spur of the moment decision but Jaune made his way to intervene with Roman. If it was truly all down to a simple touch as Jinn had told him this was a prime opportunity that could answer his two biggest questions in one go.

Neo had gotten far ahead of Roman as his bullying his way through the crowd was effective but slower.

Jaune was not built to slip through crowds like many he knew from his lives but he did have a fair share of practice, much of it was put to use as he did his best example of flowing through the crowd as he could, managing with only a few scant seconds to spare to slip in front of Roman's path, letting himself be rudely shoved out of the way.

* * *

 **Roman Torchwick, another life, another time.**

* * *

The wave of energy caught his craft, he felt the entire Bullhead shudder violently as he struggled to remain in the air, an ultimately futile struggle as the ground rushed up on him far too quickly.

In an act of desperation to escape the head-on collision with the ground the cockpit was lined up to absorb. He threw himself into the rear compartment of the craft and readied himself as best he could against the inevitable impact.

Even as ready as he could be, his Aura prepared to absorb as much of the punishment as it could he knew as he first hit the floor, the shock of the impact jarring him entirely that it would not be anywhere near enough to save himself.

He had no idea how long the craft rolled and twisted around him as he collided with every surface multiple times, his Aura failing well before the hits stopped.

Then everything was quiet, the world was holding its breath, waiting to see what the result of the crash had been.

He wasn't holding his breath though, while the world had enough to spare to hold it patiently, he had no air at all, having had the wind entirely driven from him several times.

Each time he thought his lungs were empty only to find that they somehow had more to expel.

Now he inhaled, and with it came pain, broken ribs protesting the act as he drew in a painful, ragged gasp of air that was immediately followed but a bubble of blood escaping the corner of his mouth.

He knew what the bubble meant, he had a punctured lung, a painful experience, one that he did not relish but he knew he wouldn't have to deal with it for long. Something much worse would soon rob him of his ability to care about a punctured lung as he felt overwhelming dizziness overcome himself, only to be gratefully replaced with unconsiousness as the internal bleeding robbed him of his mind and allowed him to pass almost peacefully away.

As his consciousness slipped away from him he saw his life, play out before his eye's.

His growing up in Vacuo, just another street urchin among the horde of thousands of displaced children who had lost their parents to Grimm, or had simply been abandoned, orphans always preferred the first tale over the second, it made their parents look like heroes.

As he grew older he formed his own gang of street urchins, he was big enough to protect them from the other-other bullies and in return they had paid him a share of anything they stole.

It wasn't a lasting empire, they never were, those gangs lasted weeks or months if the leader was lucky before a bigger kid came along and broke them up.

His gang hadn't been overly successful but it did get eyes on him, some that saw worth in his abilities.

It would be years but eventually, it came the night, the night he simultaneously became a wanted criminal, one big enough that the authorities could not ignore, and it was the night Neo came into his life.

He had just turned twenty and was moving through the ranks of the 'Bowlers'. A mid-sized family that held several minor tracks of territory inside Vacuo, they also operated as a buffer family in between two much larger families that had a history of bloody violence.

They held the middle ground, neither larger family had a direct reason to engage with each other everyone in Vacuo was happy.

It had been a simple job, rough up a goon who he stepped over the line and entered his families territory, nothing major, just a reminder that they were watching.

It hadn't been simple, he had been beaten within an inch of death when he had offended someone he shouldn't have, it was not simple run of the mill thug from a neighboring family that had come to cause trouble it was that families heir, looking to start a war.

He was alone of his guards but he did have his pet with him, a figure that would eventually become the confident Neo he knew but now was a scared girl, suffering from a long life of abuse.

Beaten within an inch of death but unwilling to give up his Aura had unlocked and with it his Semblance.

His Semblance was a tricky one, it was a constant pulling feeling, toward anyone who had a Semblance, it allowed him to borrow their abilities and unknowingly he used his attackers, pain and fear of death, as well as his unwillingness to give up, took hold and the mafia members Semblance activated, it was a simple thing, it was speed, or the opposite of it, it allowed the person to perceive things at a slower speed, always having time to react because everything around you was moving at half speed.

Or that's how he percieved it at the time, either way it was the edge he had needed, half dead and barely standing he attacked one final time, expecting his death to be immediate, only to somehow, through all improbability and the shocked expression on the other mans face he had slid his knife into the mans chest.

Apparently with both he and the man using the same Semblance the effect was simply canceled and the speed of his thrust had caught the man and his lack of Aura being brought to bear off guard ending his life in moments.

His blow was dealt and with it he passed out, fully expecting to never wake up again, or if he did only to be tortured to death for causing such a death.

He instead woke to Neo's face, covered in grim and bruises.

Even as far back as his time in Vacuo she never uttered a single word, he didn't know why she saved him that night but at an age of likely no more than eleven or twelve she had hidden him, moved him somewhere safe and did what little she could to help him recover, his newly unlocked Aura doing most of the work in reality.

The only thing he ever found out was she belonged to the man he had killed, and he did not treat her well.

By the time he had recovered his family the 'Bowlers' were ancient history as far as the city was concerned, wiped out as the two larger families fought through there territory. The war igniting again because of the man he himself killed.

Staying in Vacuo meant death without the protection of a family and with his heat right now as the one who started the war he knew no one would have him so he left.

He donned the hat his deceased family was named after and he and Neo left.

He had become a successful criminal thief as time passed, nearly a full decade would pass as he honed his craft, while Neo honed her own. He unlocked her Aura, trained her in the basic's of fighting, which she then took to another level.

He was now thirty, on a late train through Mistral, preparing to steal a rare dust crystal, a night that would result in success and failure he remembered, at least the first time around.

He had relived this part of his life and improved on the outcome the second time around.

He had stolen the crystal both times but the first instance he and Neo were forced to destroy it to escape, as the memory reached the late point of the night something occurred that he did not remember.

He hadn't woken up on his first time doing this, he was certain. Though what occurred as the memory played out was a third life he had not lived but was living.

The memory's up to this point had been fully accepted as the truth because that was what they were, no deviation from what he remembered about his own past but this memory was not something that his mind agree with as correct.

This Roman woke up and grabbed his scroll, it was a simple message, he read it at the moment in time and he smiled.

With that the memory no longer being fought to be accepted, his mind now understood at least somewhat what was happening and the wrong memory played out before him, combining freely with his own memories perfectly.

He accepted everything that followed, becoming one with the memories of this third life he was witnessing, accepting them as the truth that they were until all so suddenly they halted as he was pushing his way through a crowded dance floor in the 'Club'

* * *

 **Roman Torchwick, the here and now, and forever going forward.**

* * *

The control was sudden, the body lurched mid-stride as his thought's coalesced into a single amalgamated unity.

While he did not yet know why or how he was back he was certain in the brief moment of existence that he was here that this was his body, and his mind, but also it was the body of the Roman who had lived this life up to this point.

There was no hesitation, or split it psyche, both halves each complete on their own but were now one together in, a complete being.

As complete as he was he couldn't quite help to resist the lurch from the sudden shift that had occurred and braced himself for a harmless if embarrassing thud against the dance floor.

He wasn't grounded for long as he got to his feet and dusted himself off, he straightened his hat for a moment, adjust the collar of his coat and frowned menacingly at anyone nearby.

The effective act earned results as those nearby moved away from him, understanding well enough that he was less than pleased and anyone still in his path might receive something worse than an ungentle push out of his way.

This, however, did not extend beyond his immediate vicinity as he moved past those near him and a figure stood solidly in his path, a rough shove was his reward for blocking his way only for the shove to be rebuffed, the figure baring his path still, annoyed he looked at the man directly.

He hadn't had time to process what had truly happened to him, his memories were complete and he knew that Jaune Arc, had been looking out for him, prevent him from getting into trouble.

It didn't take an exaggerated guess that he was going to be somehow connected to what had happened to him just now but he didn't expect him to be standing there in front of him.

The kid, or at least his physical appearance was that of a teen bordering on the edge of full-fledged manhood was purposefully blocking his path but simultaneously not. He looked ready to act, tense as if he was waiting for something he wasn't sure what that was.

The positioning, the timing of this weird shift he had just felt, the odd posture it took a long moment, the pause being only a moment but the realization hit him all at once.

Jaune Arc had somehow facilitated this.

Roman stepped past Jaune meeting eyes for a brief moment, a wink of acknowledgment was all he sent to the Life restarting huntsman as he moved further forward, catching up to Neo as his better half had just finished silently threating a couple that sat at Juniors Bar for their seats.

After he placed an order for both himself and Neo he fished out his Scroll from his pocket and turned in his chair to face the crowd, his eyes scanning the crowd, and balconies looking for Jaune once again. He could not spot the man though but that mattered little as he felt the Scroll in his hand vibrate gently.

~ **Welcome back Roman. We need to talk when you have time, preferably away from Neo and before our meeting in a couple days time, things are... different now.~**

He read the message few times looking for any hidden meaning before turning back to face the bar again, not quite sure what he should be doing right now but deciding that a drink could help, or at least definitely not hurt.

* * *

 **Hours later, in an alley where a similar meeting happened once before.**

* * *

Roman had placated Neo, sufficiently and completely to the point where she had been too distracted to notice him slipping away. He had left the club early claiming he had seem all he needed and slipped out to meet Jaune in the same alleyway they had come face to face for the first time in his last repeated life.

Before he had even fully turned down the alley he could clearly see the person he was looking for, leaning casually against a wall, the light of a scroll partially illuminating his face as his thumb scrolled through pages.

"So, how the hell did you do this?" Roman spoke loudly drawing attention to himself well before he was close enough to be heard.

Jaune looked up from his Scroll, smiling as he closed it with a quiet click and giving his full attention to the approaching Roman. "Honestly, I did nothing to accomplish this. This is all thanks to a mistake, or not a mistake." Jaune's brow furrowed in thought for a moment before with a sigh escaping his lips he shrugged. "I fucked up a long time ago and let's just say that that fuckup had unforeseen and unexpected circumstances."

"Well, fuckup or no, I must say besides feeling a little out of sorts I have to say being back again, for as short as it has been anyways, has been pretty good."

"I'm glad you feel that way, can I ask though, are you completely you, no weird side effects or alternate personalities. Was the process as painless and instant as it looked like to me just watching?" Jaune leaned in eager for the answer.

Roman smiled as he quickly deduced something, the earlier awkward waiting from Jaune and now his questions, each helping him come to a simple conclusion. "I am perfectly and completely the me you know, only with some additional memories of who I was as a person in this life before I became the me, I am now... If that makes sense."

"I think so, and honestly that is relieving to hear."

"This is the first time you have ever done this? or at least the first time it has succeeded at least?"

"You are correct on both but this is the only time I will have a chance to do this unless I fulfill a pretty awful request." Jaune found himself grimacing slightly still at the thought of what exactly he would need to accomplish.

"Oh that expression does not bode well, I take it this is not something that you think is exceptionally doable?"

"You don't know the half of it but I'll give you the full and complete story, and I hope you will stick around to help me. I can't really force you to and honestly I wouldn't even if I could, you have had two shit lives lived so far and if we go through with this it will be a third with potentially no payoff if we fail,"

With his statement finished Jaune told Roman everything, not skipping a single detail as he talked in length about the weird bit of reversing through time and meeting with Salem and the Relics. His millions of lives where he worked out all the kinks he had before his life with the startover of Roman. How he could essentially force a lifetime of peace for himself by following carefully orchestrated criteria. Not a single detail was skipped or glossed over as he needed Roman to have every detail available to him, so that when the man made his decision it would be completely informed.

After Jaune had finished laying out every detail he could remember there was a long pause as Roman looked to visibly be in the midst of mentally digesting everything he had been told. About the Relics, he only had a tiny bit of knowledge about, how this was a single time opportunity to live for forever but in taking the chance and failing he could doom not only himself but Neo as well to another hellish life. It was a staggering weight on knowledge to be burdened with and he gave Jaune a look of respect that the man was not a mass of stress.

"First of all, thanks I guess for pushing for me to get another chance. You didn't need to and I appreciate it. Also telling me all this makes me believe that it wasn't simply so that you could lie to me and use me to complete your task from the Relic's, you have told me enough, more than enough to make me understand fully what is at stake here. I mean, a form of immortality, if we succeed, is an impressive reward, I mean you seem to be coping with your inability to properly die pretty well so that at least tells me that living forever has some perks. But trying and failing has no real outcome beyond a world at war."

"Unfortunately that is the problem we face, I can give you a singular life of peace, and can take another life for myself to be selfish, without looking over my shoulder for Salem and Ozpin's inevitable war."

"Damn, damn damn damn, this is an awful fucking choice, I'm sure you realize that but I just have to say it, this is literally the worst decision to make." Roman threw his hands up in the air and began pacing back and forth as he pulled out a cigar and in an act more befitting a cigarette inhaled half the cigar in a single intake of breath, an actually impressive display of lung power.

"Yeah I do realize it, it's also why we don't have to make this choice right now. I still need to restore Yang's memories as well and then well I don't know. She has led me too already lead one selfish life and who knows she might do so again." Jaune said this with a half-hearted smile on his face before shaking his head. "So don't stress too hard about it, if Yang veto's this then you get to enjoy a relaxing life without worrying about Salem or any dumb war, that I can guaranty."

"Whoa, that was a depressing expression, you have your own opinion on this don't you?"

"Yeah I do but those are selfish and lonely thoughts." Jaune shrugged his shoulder's and looked at Roman. "This is nice, right here right now, I didn't know exactly how nice doing this feels, I can't have a conversation like this with anyone, every life is a carefully orchestrated act, I have to hit all my queue's perfectly, can never miss a line of dialogue, everything needs to be so damn perfect, even after Beacon when things calm down I'm still just doing an act. I can't deny that I don't want to attempt completing the Relics request, I have put a great deal of thought into it and I can't say for certain I have every detail worked out or even accounted for but the plan is there, burning away in the back of my mind."

"Yeash, so maybe your form of immortality isn't quite so great as I might have guessed." Roman chewed on the end of his cigar for a moment thinking things over before pulling it from his mouth, dropping it to the ground and grinding out the embers with his shoe. "I feel I'm not educated enough to offer my opinion or advice on this and even if I was I think this is your choice, no one else, you're the one trapped in this existence, and maybe, you should be a little selfish," Roman said with a smile in his voice, lightening the mood slightly. "Either way we have been out here talking too long as it is and I could use some sleep, who knows with eight hours of sleep I might have a better offering to suggest but for the time being I will follow your lead. If we do this I gain immortality if we succeed, and what, a third death if we fail, been there done that, who knows maybe third times the charm and it will stick."

Laughter echoed through the alley as Roman walked away, leaving Jaune standing alone in silence for a moment, reflecting on the night's success and what it meant.

He hadn't been lying when he said that simply talking with Roman had been a pleasure, to be able to be open and candid with someone who could at least understand in a sense the problems that his life presented him.

Turning to leave, he had new thoughts to carry him to his own temporary residence.

He now knew and understood how the process worked with giving memories to those he was able. It was a complex thing with a simple outcome, a complete and full combination of both conscious minds, neither one being erased or replaced but unifying into a singular being.

That was a good thing, it meant that any misgivings he might have had for essentially destroying this version of Yang to replace her with his own were not a worry. Roman had said one thing about the initial memory of his life in this timeline being resisted for a moment but then accepted once he understood what was going on the feeling of resistance went away.

That was comforting knowledge that his messing with things in advance with Roman hadn't caused any problems and with the way he understood it the process with Yang wouldn't even have that small snag, he had purposefully not interacted with her in any way, mostly because if had he doubted he could have resisted the urge to attempt to return her memories if they had met up prior to now.

His mind raced with the idea to travel to Patch and touch Yang, a creepy thought he admitted to himself but no matter how creepy it was it was highly tempting. Tempting and only that, he could afford to be patient, he knew exactly where Yang would be right before Beacon, her stop at Junior's club was right before Beacon was a simple and perfect opportunity to contact her.

It would also be a nice way to keep the 'Club' from being trashed, Junior didn't honestly deserve what Yang did the place in every life and while he couldn't exactly step in in other lives and prevent it he figured he might as well help stop it in this life since he could.

His thoughts keeping him distracted he didn't notice the figure of Glynda Goodwitch standing outside the entrance to his Hotel until he was almost upon her, and definitely too late for him to avoid detection.

The time was excessively early, having spent the greater portion of the evening inside Juniors and his entire night talking with Roman in the alley that it had passed from night into morning and it was little surprise that Glynda would have already begun her day. She was at this hotel not personally because of him and he knew that from previous lives but she was her looking for applicants who might 'volunteer' to help out with an event Beacon would be hosting today.

These events were common on the lead up to Beacon opening for its newest year and volunteers would become scarce after the first few, each event being a boring and tedious affair, so much so that even Jaune in all of his repeats avoided the summons for volunteers like the plague.

Jaune doubted he would be that lucky in this life as he stared eye to eye with Glynda Goodwitch and her disapproving frown as she looked over how he was dressed and no doubt smelling of a club, a mixture of booze and smoke being interlaced with his clothing.

There was no exchange of words only a long pregnant pause that was eventually broken with a exhale of breath from Lynda.

"Mr. Arc, I am looking for volunteers for a demonstration being held at Beacon today, I assume by your apparel that you are free for the day. Please clean yourself up and report to the Bullhead transports by lunch today, please bring whatever combat equipment and gear you have acquired."

Jaune didn't find himself able to attempt to respond and honestly did not know of a decent argument that could have spared him this but he was intrigued by being asked to bring his equipment so just offered a dumb and tired sounding response of agreement to the figure of Glynda who was walking away.

* * *

 **It's been fun bringing Roman back, it took me awhile to figure out how exactly I wanted to phrase the effect. I wanted there to be no doubt when it was completed that this wasn't a whole singular person in control, no rogue split personalities or god awful moments of memory loss.**

 **Roman is a complete person going forward.**

 **So what else what else, oh Jaune is heading up to Beacon to take part in a demonstration of some sort, an event he commonly skips in his other lives due to just how boring the initial events are that Beacon hosts are.  
**

 **Wonder what could be going on up there that he would need to bring his gear. Clearly, nothing super important since I try to leave everything leading up to Beacon that he doesn't personally interact with as boring and Canon as it is. So this will just be something awful and boring and totally not worth your time to read the next chapter, everyone should just skip it.**

 **Aside from that their is little else to say.**

 **There is one thing about my other story, I'm not sure who here reads 'Life after the Heroics' but this is a slight update on it for those who do.**

 **In the A/N of the last chapter I said I had a chapter with Tidyfrog to go through and long story short she told me it was awful and I needed to doit over again, Now being as I don't typically write that kind of story and she does, I want to doit right so that chapter is being delayed.**

 **For how long I'm not sure she recommended splitting its contents across two chapters minimum and expanding on certain details. So lots of work for me and I will try my best to get it out soon... hopefully... probably...**


	48. Chapter 48

Glynda had given him ample time to prepare, no doubt seeing this as a punishment for him but also important enough that she didn't want him showing up in a panicked rush, with little in the way of preparation.

He had enough time to grab breakfast, shower in his room and gather and don his equipment. There had been enough time even for a nap but missing a little sleep had long ago stopped being a problem, he could if necessary survive for days without actual sleep, he didn't like to do that but it was something he could if necessary, so a single night had no effect on him.

He did consider his outfit as he prepared though, he had been told to bring his gear and equipment and while he had no real issue with doing so as in two months he would show up to Beacon dressed and equipped the same.

His clothing while well made was plain to look at and without a close eye of scrutiny no one would be able to determine it was actually from an expensive place like **_'Semblance Stitches'_** and his weaponry was similarly easy to disregard.

His Armguard while heavy was deceptively compact, hiding what existed within it expertly, and his two swords, Celica Mors strapped to his left hip, and Crocea Mors strapped and centered squarely between his shoulder blades looked to be just what they were, simple blades. Honestly more people spent time scrutinizing the odd placement of Crocea Mors than anything else and that wasn't even something he had intended when he placed the blade there.

Crocea Mors lived on his back for the simple reason, the damn thing was heavy, the metal sheath that expanded into a shield was a heavy item. With just that he could have easily placed it on his other hip with little difficulty but the addition placed in it doubled the weight of the sheath, and made carrying it at the hip simply too clumsy, so he wore it like a backpack, with that the weight felt barely noticeable and he had the added benefit of being able to expand the sheath into the shield with a switch concealed in his Armguard, just another hidden feature of his equipment.

His ride up to Beacon was in a Bullhead filled with similarly aged people, a few of whom he recognized, who would make it into Beacon, but most of the people his age he couldn't place, maybe they were all students who quit in advance of the initiation, a strange prospect since it was so close but he couldn't think of any other reason why some many clearly aspiring Huntsmen were on this craft yet he did not recognize many among them.

With so many unknown faces he kept to himself, making it clear to those who approached him he didn't want to be bothered, he had seen enough instances where a simple interaction on his part could alter a persons path, and if those here choose not to come to the initiation he would try not to affect their decisions, god knows what circumstances might change if any of these extra's attended the initiation and got placed onto team they shouldn't. It could cause untold ripples he would be unable to alter or predict and while he might have looked forward to that in other lives this one he did not.

As the Bullhead rose above the cliffs gradually, many on board were given their first clear look at Beacon Academy, many pushed to the windows in awe, marveling at the scale up the buildings as well as exactly how large the academies campus was.

To not appear wholly out of place, he at least pretended to look through a window at the school but that was simply an act, he was instead looking at two Bullheads already landed and powered down that clearly did not belong. Both crafts were also starkly different in design, built to handle difference environments and temperatures.

One craft was almost similar enough in design to pass for what the general Vale citizen would see but on closer inspection, they would notice it had a thicker hull as well as larger engines, designed for higher elevations and colder temperatures. If those two signs were not enough to point out it was different from the rest lined up beside it the large ' **SDC'** markings and Schnee family emblem were a clear giveaway.

The other craft was one of Mistral's flying boats, it bore no special marking's aside from a single decal proclaiming it was from Mistral, not that it needed that as the design was clearly enough.

The appearance of the two crafts did leave him greatly concerned though, he couldn't say for sure who had been aboard the Mistral craft but if he was a betting man he would guess strongly for it to be Pyrrha.

The Atlas craft was clearly Weiss, that was easy.

He knew through time spent with both of his friends that they had both had the choice to attend any academy they wanted, and had toured each beforehand before both settling on Vale but he had never known when that tour had happened or that the two had both been at Beacon at the same time.

This was a bad situation to be in and he knew it, he might affect their decisions to come to Vale if he did the wrong thing and as he stepped back from looking through his window he sat down and groaned silently to himself, wishing that he had never run across Roman last night anymore.

He remained seated until the Bullhead eventually touched down and everyone on board was forced to disembark. He wished the interior of the craft had any space to hide so he could have simply ridden back to Vale and skipped this entire event but sadly it did not and he could not remain inside as Glynda Goodwitch stood just outside, and had both clearly seen him and was making note's on a clipboard she kept tucked away safely under her arm.

"I'm glad you could make it Mr. Arc."

He could feel the scrutiny of Glynda as she looked him over, no doubt doing a mental calculation on just how fit and ready he was, it was an ability she had developed over many long years of being Beacon's combat instructor and it was rarely wrong in her case. It was only for a moment but once the visual inspection was over he could immediately feel the absence of her gaze, there were no other words spoken by Glynda as she turned back to her clipboard as he disembarked, following along behind the pack of others at a slower pace, not overly keen on interacting with either Pyrrha or Weiss before Beacon and messing something up unintentionally.

Unfortunately no matter how slowly he walked the assembly area was nearby and he arrived with plenty of time to spare, he briefly toyed with the idea of wandering off but doubted by the number of Beacon staff he could see nearby that such an effort would be successful and would ultimately lead to him ending up exactly where he currently stood, just with a few more pairs of eyes focused on him.

So he stood near the rear of the crowd and spent his time scanning the crowds, wondering where the Schnee group was and also if his assumption that the Mistral ship had brought Pyrrha as well, secretly hoping she wasn't here so that he would have fewer opportunities to mess up today. His secret hope was dashed almost immediately as toward the front of the crowd he spotted a pair of figures he recognized through his many lives. Pyrrha stood beside her father, a tall and stern looking man, one who cared very deeply for the wellbeing of his family.

The Atlas group he eventually spotted, completely separated from the crowd by several feet. Weiss stood alone in front of her entire escort, no immediate family member could be seen as present from where he stood but he did recognize one figure among the crowd behind her. Jacque Schnee's personal assistant, a stern woman who was fiercely loyal to the Schnee family and no doubt one of the only people whos opinion Jacque respected, or listened too.

As he had been looking through the crowd he noticed the commotion of talking parties settling down as Headmaster Ozpin made his entrance and stood on a small elevated stage so that everyone could see him clearly.

"Greetings everyone, welcome to the Beacon Academy. Today is a day set aside by the Vale council to attract exceptional foreign students to our prestigious academy. For myself and my staff, it is simply another step in the process of attempting to provide our world with the greatest Huntsman we possibly can. You will all be given a tour of the Academy and your guides will very much impress upon you exactly how amazing our school is with its facilities and campus as well as its training regime's. That is of course what the Council wants so we will as always acquiesce to such a simple request."

He frowned at this speech by Ozpin and wondered what exactly was the message it was supposed to be conveying, as many among the crowd he had ridden with to Beacon looked uncomfortable at the weird direction the speech was taking. There were some near the front who simply through body language he was able to tell were visibly angry by the speech so far, likely council members or aides attached to the Vale council.

"I don't believe for a second any of you present will make your final decision on where you choose to attend with a simple tour and someone telling you all the great features any academy has to offer. You will still be given the tour, but we will also be showing you some exhibition matches to show the skill of our students, and even a few graduated alumni as well. Of course, we also hope some of you attending today might also be interested in testing yourselves against my students or possibly even each other, who knows what might become of such meetings."

He watched as Ozpin left the stage and had to hand it to the crafty bastard on how well his speech worked, he had been listening but had kept his eyes on the crowd and knew almost immediately that that speech alone had probably gone a long way in convincing Weiss to attend Beacon, Ozpin's disregard for the authority of the Council likely heavily being focused toward her specifically, and it showed as Weiss almost looked smug as she likely saw another like herself in Ozpin resisting the authority of the Council in his own little and meaningful way like how she had no doubt herself begun stubbly pushing back against her father.

He couldn't get a guess on what Pyrrha's reaction to Ozpin's speech had been as she was turned entirely away from him but he doubted the speech was made to convince her, no that was for Weiss, the exhibition matches later were for Pyrrha. Ozpin no doubt hoping he could find an opponent somewhere in his school's older generations that would tip the scales for Pyrrha and make her settle on Beacon as her choice.

He himself knew that that was a meaningless effort on Ozpin's part but that's only because he knew Pyrrha so well, she wanted to attend Beacon for her own reasons and had already made up her mind well before this point, but Ozpin didn't know that and the only thing he did know was that she was always looking for an opponent that could match up to her and he hoped to find several for her.

The tour began almost immediately after Ozpin departed and also much the same as how Ozpin had laid out in his short speech. People who were clearly not Beacon staff and most likely attached to the Council in various capacities struggled their way through the tour, doing their best to outline anything at all that might interest those attending, paying special attention to point of things that might interest either Weiss or Pyrrha, neither of whom seemed to care that much, though each showing their expression of that differently.

Pyrrha being patiently polite, while Weiss being dismissively polite.

From the far rear of the tour he couldn't help but silently laugh at exactly how well orchestrated everything had been by Ozpin, he didn't care for the man but couldn't deny that he could be masterfully effective if he was allowed the time to plan.

The tour ended thankfully at the combat classroom, everyone glad the awkwardness was finally over, well except for himself, he was having quite the fun time laughing to himself silently at the back of the group as the guides became more and more flustered as the staff members that were traveling with them kept being called away and replaced frequently, in a pattern that somehow made the staff look like a perfectly functioning system and the council aides looking like ill-prepared buffoons.

Glynda Goodwitch's training room was filled to capacity with the tour group filling the stands. On the training floor below there was a mixture of second and third-year students he could recognize by appearance and name, having interacted with all of them at some point in one of his many lives.

The mixture of students was an impressive one, being some of the top performers in combat or tactics, in some cases both.

As soon as the crowd found their seats the exhibition matches began and he could feel an attitude shift in the room and he understood fairly quickly that this was the reason many he saw today, that he never knew to see again were not present at initiation.

The practice fights below them were fast, and brutal affairs, effectively showing what Huntsmen needed to be capable of to combat Grimm.

Many civilians did not quite realize what such a fight looked like first hand. There were combat tournaments as well as the Vytal Festival that was censored and had limitations in place for what was and was not allowed but here, at this moment many were getting their first example oh what exactly a real fight looked like and it frightened many.

Some present even began to look quite squeamish as the fights progressively became more aggressive, a few even needing to leave.

This was something he had never considered about the civilian population that skipped a prep academy, they would have no idea what exactly they were planning to get into and an event like this would effectively filter out those who knew they would not be up to the task, making his original entrance into Beacon seem even luckier than ever before, had he attended something like this he couldn't say with confidence that he would have shown up for initiation either.

As the last bout ended, a hard-fought match between a pair of men that could have easily been in Qrow's year, he guessed by their appearance's. He watched as Glynda took the stage finally.

"As demonstrated by a mixture of some of lowest and highest ranked combat students this is what Beacon can offer if you choose to attend here. Now though I would like to invite anyone interested in testing our facilities themselves please feel free to make your way down here."

It was hardly surprising to find the Pyrrha was the first to her feet, nor that surprising for Weiss to follow suit but it did shock him slightly to see everyone who remained in the room make their way down below, even those with unsure expressions weren't about to give up just yet. Being the only one attending to remain up in the stands would likely be seen in the wrong light so in concealed annoyance he made his way below as well, desperately hoping he would not have to face anyone who he knew would show up at initiation, though having that being what he wished for he was hardly surprised when he found himself facing off against Pyrrha Nikos, no doubt a continuation of Glynda's punishment for his appearance this morning outside his hotel.

"Hello, I guess we will be opponents for this."

Pyrrha's light voice reached his ears and snapped him into focus. "Uh, yeah, I guess so. Jaune Arc." He thrust his hand forward in greeting.

"Nice to meet you Jaune, I'm Pyrrha Nikos."

He winced at the way she spoke her name, quietly, hoping he wouldn't quite catch it and potentially recognize it, though he never understood why she feared people recognizing her name more than just recognizing her, she was a standout in any crowd. "Nice to meet you as well Pyrrha." He gave no hint that he recognized her by name or appearance, an act which was successful as her smiled broadened slightly, he noticed from the corner of his eye.

"Excuse me for being a little forward but I'm a bit of a fight enthusiast and I have seen many weapon arrangements and combinations but yours is certainly unique."

"Pyrrha are you fishing for information to have an advantage?" He asked with a serious expression which he held for only a moment before breaking into a wide grin. "Hah just kidding, imagine if I was like that, god how awful would that be." He motioned to his setup. "Yeah I get more than a few odd looks, but trust me it's set up like this for a reason." He was glad to see Pyrrha still smiling alongside him, glad that his joke hadn't put up a wall, though he was still unsure exactly where to go from here, he shouldn't meet her for two more months and at that time he could have used Weiss as a buffer to introduce himself and pretend to no know who she was.

"I'm sorry, you are right though, to have a fair match neither of us should know anything about each others weapons or styles, to have the fairest result play out."

His smile faltered for a second. "Yeah, it's not going to be a fair fight Pyrrha, I already know I stand no chance." He shrugged his shoulders slightly, the motioning meaning to convey to her that it was alright.

"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't realize you knew who I was."

The disappointment on Pyrrha's face was immediate, and it felt bad for the moment he let it exist. "What do you mean who you are? Are you someone I should know?" He put the most baffled and confused expression on his face he could manage, it being enough that Pyrrha's expression brightened back up somewhat.

"Do you really not know who I am?"

He leaned forward slightly, looking at her face intently for a moment, and deeply furrowing his brow like he was deep in thought before leaning back and giving a shrug. "I have no idea who you are. Sorry?"

"Oh, no need to apologize. But if I must ask, if you don't know who I am why do you know you are going to lose?"

"Eh, it's part of my Semblance, I haven't had it for long, only about a year so I don't really know everything, but it gives me an insight into people or events that I'm about to meet or are about to happen, it doesn't tell me anything in exact terms but I get a feeling on whether something might go my way or not or how I perceive people. It's honestly all kinds of confusing at most times but every so often I get a pretty clear picture of something and as far as our fight, yeah, sorry, it's going to be you pretty dominantly." He shrugged apologetically as he explained his fake Semblance, one that he had come up with entirely at random when put on the spot by Ozpin in his life living with Yang. It had withstood the test of time and as more and more people he tells about it the more people seem to look the other way when things naturally seem to go his way.

"You have that kind of a Semblance and you still don't know who I am?"

"I mean," he shrugged his shoulders and looked away for a moment. "I know that everyone here knows you somehow so I assume you're famous but I genuinely don't know, I'm actually kinda embarrassed that I don't, feel's like I'm missing out on something. You wouldn't care to fill me in would you?" He looked back to Pyrrha to see for a split second a heart-melting smile that was quickly replaced with a mischievous grin.

"I think I won't offer that knowledge up to you freely but how about this. If you're so confident you will lose to me how about I give myself a handicap and if you win I'll tell you all about who I am."

"Hah, fine, though I doubt you can give yourself enough of a handicap to make up for what I'm capable of, so be prepared to keep your secret then."

He settled done on a bench alongside Pyrrha and watched as the exhibition matches between applicants got underway, few of the fights were anywhere similar to what they had previously witnessed from the bleachers and that seemed to drive home the point to many of them, realizing they probably didn't belong here, especially considering when some of the more skilled applicants who he knew would appear at initiation showed what they were capable of.

Weiss's dust manipulation being a truly humbling experience to observe as it had been the most one-sided encounter so far.

Eventually, it was his turn and he took the stage alongside Pyrrha, opting to take the far side of the stage he paced over with his left hand gently resting against the hilt of Celica Mors. When he arrived at the edge of the stage he turned to face Pyrrha giving a small shrug as he placed his left arm and heavy armguard before himself and signaled he was ready.

He could tell from both Pyrrha's and Glynda's expressions that neither understood this tactic as he had only raised a single arm to fight and his right arm was tucked away behind his back, seemingly hidden to make himself a smaller target.

Confused or not Glynda had started the match and Pyrrha had drew her blade and approached cautiously, his odd stance making anyone with any prior fighting knowledge no doubt at least a little apprehensive as he seemed to be giving away his body to be struck, goading his opponent to close to attack in melee which might be exactly what he wants or for his opponent to take the option to show they had a ranged weapon and give away an advantage that might come in handy later.

The stance he himself was in was exactly what it looked like, a fake pose that was near impossible to strike or guard against effectively. It did, however, allow him to remain completely motionless and feel for any shifts in his equipment.

It was a simple thing Pyrrha would do at the start of a fight, find anything magnetic that her opponent might be wearing or using so that she could, when needed, immediately take hold of. She had said she would give herself a handicap and after several long moments of not feeling the slightest shift in his equipment, he guessed that she had meant to not use her Semblance.

The fights so far had been nothing but a staring match and the crowd who had witnessed a great deal more watched this starkly different confrontation with interest, the entire room becoming quiet as they watch Pyrrha slowly approach himself.

He kept a careful eye on the distance between them and as Pyrrha neared the edge of where her spear would begin to reach him he took action.

His right arm that had been tucked carefully behind his back whipped in front of himself, loosing one of his hidden throwing knives with force and accuracy, the distance between the two making his throw seem even more impactful as Aura was brought to deflect the attack in place of Pyrrha's shield which was too late to reach to the quick maneuver.

His right arm did not stop with the release of his throwing weapon though, as it continued until it reached the hilt of Celica Mors and reversing his arms momentum he drew the blade in a quick hiss of air, slashing hard as he stepped forward into the broad sweep of the blade.

His swing stopped mid-arc as it struck hard against Pyrrha's shield, angled to perfection and sending his remaining momentum swinging both his blade and himself toward the floor of the stage. Instead of attempting to prevent the dive he increased his rotation, sweeping his arm and blade back up as he swung wide with his heavy left armguard, it connected with Pyrrha's shield in a much more solid fashion, the weight and momentum behind it no doubt catching her off guard as he felt the shield be pushed back and away, as he finished his rotation and for the first time since he led with the knife took a moment to look at Pyrrha.

She was as usual smiling and enjoying every moment of this fight, delighted to find an opponent who could surprise her in so many ways, her eyes flashing brightly as they roved over his equipment, taking in what was visible again with greater care as she also lept in to attack.

He kept his grin hidden as he watched Pyrrha enjoy herself in the fight and press her attack, her blade weaving and jabbing at perfect interval's that she herself had hammered into his mind of so long ago. Her starting attack's he made clumsy parries against, backpedaling while doing so, the act showing a clear gap in skill still between them, he gradually began to let attacks through and hit him, connecting painfully against his Aura.

He didn't just sit back and take the beating either, he knew he was going to let Pyrrha win, without her using her Semblance it was basically a no contest fight that he could easily dominate in, but he was going to let Pyrrha enjoy this, as much as he could anyways.

He would clumsily parry or dodge a few attacks, maybe even taking a blow, somewhere where it wouldn't devastate his Aura and then retaliate. He struck with both accuracy and speed, enough that it would force Pyrrha to react and compensate but not enough where Glynda, who was watching from the sidelines would think his increase in skill from earlier in the year was some fantastic leap in ability or at least he hoped, his sudden increase in skill was rarely mentioned when he attended Beacon.

During Beacon, he would play the role of a student who simply excelled rapidly with combat training but his strongest trait would always be how tactfully he fought. His tactics were what he currently displayed here in this fight, very quickly giving up ground and hits to Pyrrha and fighting from the position of an underdog, which to the eyes of everyone present was what he was, he should realistically have no chance against Pyrrha.

So he kept being pushed back, but occasionally, during the brief moments when Pyrrha had to return to her rest position in her swings he would strike, powering through her guard as he would lock his blade against hers, turning the fight for moments from a sword fight to a brutal grapple where he would send down clubbing blows with his armguard before being pushed back by the graceful moments of Pyrrha as she slipped through his grip.

The exchange of her sword strikes and his clubbing hits led for a longer more drawn out encounter as the fight came down to one of who would run out of Aura first, or it should have if he rained down his blows with greater accuracy than he had been.

He had been raining down the strikes whenever he managed to lock up Pyrrha's sword but out of every five blows thrown with his armguard at best one would connect properly, the rest would slide off in glancing hits that amounted to little in the way of Aura loss.

He had made the fight look good, Pyrrha was smiling and enjoying every moment, used to this kind of fight from all her tournaments and not one to shy away from a slugfest if that's what her opponent would try to attempt. His Aura was nearly spent though as he was kicked free of his most recent Grapple, Pyrrha had walked up his legs and used her own weight and both legs to kick him straight into the floor of the stage, a theatric end to the fight as he brought up what little Aura he had too late to soften the blow, and in doing so ended the bout with his back planted firmly against the floor.

"Sorry."

Pyrrha's typical response made him chuckle as he groaned and sat up, rubbing the part of his back that absorbed the impact. "It was a fight, no need to say sorry or apologize." He waved off her concern and gently got back to his feet, returning his ineffectively used Celica Mors to its scabbard.

"You fought remarkably well Jaune, taking into account a difference in skill, I must say it would have been a much closer encounter if more of your strike hit their marks."

"Thanks." he allowed Pyrrha to help him to a seat off the stage, doing so mostly under his own power but appreciating the hand she offered when he looked to ease himself down onto the seat. "That's' what going to Beacon is for, my Semblance can give me prompts for when to attack or not but I don't really have the skill to really put it to good use. Thank you though for not making the fight horribly one-sided in your favor."

"I only gave myself a small handicap, nothing really that impressive."

He raised an eyebrow as he cast a glance at Pyrrha who had sort of just mumbled her response. "You might not think that but remember, my Semblance is Insight, I had a brief flash of it before we fought after you told me you would give yourself a handicap, it was still very strongly in your favor, but there was at least a hope for me that I could pull out an upset. I wonder, how exactly did you handicap yourself." He watched as Pyrrha did not look to him immediately as her eyes first went to the stands above them, where her father still sat. politely making conversation with another but keeping a close watch on his daughter at the same time.

"That's uh, something I can't tell you, my family is one of those who are protective of our Semblance's, not really liking spread knowledge of what they are unless it was to people we trust."

"Ah, say no more, I have heard something like that from enough Huntsmen I have run across this past year so it makes sense, I guess, at least for the less visually noticeable Semblances, keeping them secret can be like a hidden trump card."

He could tell his response was enough to put Pyrrha at ease that he wouldn't press the issue as a comfortable silence passed between them as they watched the rest of the match's continue on from that point before eventually saying their farewells as the day ended and Pyrrha disappeared into the horizon about the Mistral Airship.

He was just about to board the crowded one, meant to take the group of Vale based applicants including himself back down to Vale when he noticed once again Glynda Goodwitch standing outside the craft, clipboard gone from sight and her expression, while still stern as ever appeared to be searching the crowd, and lighting up for a moment when she locked eyes with himself. She did not move to approach him as he was clearly trying to board the Bullhead.

Having no avenue of escape he just found himself wishing today would be over already, the positive of bringing Roman back had already been nullified by his entire day of working to not interact with Weiss or Pyrrha, the latter of which proved impossible, though he was fairly confident to say that he hadn't messed anything up that would drive the redhead away from Beacon, ultimately he probably gave he another reason to attend.

"Mr. Arc, would you please follow me."

"Ah, what about the ride back to Vale?" A carefully acted look of apprehension crossed his face as he looked at the ready to depart Bullhead then toward Glynda.

"I will arrange another for you when we are done here."

Frustration, it was what he currently felt as he desperately wanted to board the Bullhead but ultimately, only lingering for a few seconds to continue to show a false attitude of apprehension at missing the Bullhead did he finally follow along behind Glynda. "Did I do something wrong Professor Goodwitch?" The question kept up his act with a perfectly reasonable question that also fished for information.

"Not at all, you actually made an impressive display today, your performance at the entrance tests almost a year ago were above average but not so much that we at Beacon would single you out as anything special but your performance today, barely a year later has allowed us to alter our original assessment of you."

 _'Oh god's what have I done, please don't let this be anything major.'_ Special or standing out, those were things he did not care to be associated with, at least not without the act of visually being observed at making great strides in his ability. "And that means what exactly?"

"That means we need to have a longer conversation, and you will have an offer presented to you. Now please follow me quickly, we were not expecting this today and we have needed to make an adjustment to schedule to compensate."

Having no real out to his situation he dutifully followed along, even pickup up his pace slightly so he wasn't looking to be intentionally lagging behind, that was until he followed Glynda into an elevator with only a single destination that he could be being taken too.

The ride was short and the door slid open, immediately into Headmaster Ozpin's Office, where the Headmaster was currently alone but was currently invested in a call, one that was loud enough he could hear both sides fairly clearly.

"-made a mockery of our aids, and purposefully sabotaged our efforts to recruit some high profile student to your academy this year."

"I don't believe I have done any such thing. Forgive me again Council Members but your efforts were never going to prove successful, these are not simply aspiring Huntsmen looking for the most up to date facilities to continue their education. If that was the case then the Atlas Academy would be overflowing every year with transfers from the three other kingdoms and we all clearly know that Atlas has one of the worst Enrollments out of the four academies. Honestly mandatory military service for a time it not an incentive. Besides we have already secured one of your two hopefuls today, Pyrrha Nikos applied to enroll today shortly after the combat demonstrations, I would say largely in thanks to one of our own Vale born applicants. As for Weiss Schnee as your aide's have no doubt informed you Jacque Schnee did not attend personally so I feel that is a clear enough indication that his daughter was only here as a formality and that she will be enrolling in Atlas much the same as her older sister Winter had."

"You are treading a thin line of what we deem as acceptable behavior Ozpin from someone of your position. If it were within our power you would be removed."

"Ah see that threat is without teeth councilman, You have no power over the academy much as I have no Power over Vale politics, a system that was set up far before either of our times so please do not waste your breath. Now however I have other matters to attend to so if you see fit to continue this discussion feel free to come visit."

He watched and listened to this conversation between Ozpin and at least a majority of the councilmembers with an inward grin. While Ozpin and Salem were definitely his opponents they also weren't exactly the worst, well Ozpin wasn't anyways, Salem in this timeframe was legitimately evil and unredeemable, add maybe a couple hundred thousand years of solitude with nothing but sifting through his own memories and apparently, she's not all that bad. The real worst people and part of the overarching reason why the Relics would never be able to fulfill their purpose were the politicians. That wasn't to say they were all bad either, many were actively pursuing their careers to improve their kingdoms but many, like the man who had attempted to threaten Ozpin just now were only looking out for themselves and the power they wielded.

"Glynda, so glad you made it so quickly, I'm glad to have had an actual excuse to cut that call short."

"You do know that hanging up on them will just incite them further."

"Oh yes and I can't wait to see what form of petty payback they will see fit to attempt this time, but enough of this, we are no doubt boring our young guest."

The change was immediate and the pair went from Ozpin's banter to a look of focus, and Glynda, well she did not change at all as she had turned to look his way.

"This is Jaune Arc, he passed the Beacon entrance exam on his first attempt a year ago at the trails, scoring a respectable grade on the written portion of the test, his prior education was done in the town on Ansel where he proved to be an excellent student, no doubt helping him greatly with the written portion of the test."

He fidgetted at this, he always assumed that the examinees would be screened in certain ways and was rather pleased that his performance back in Ansel had merit toward his ultimate goal in his lives, it gave him a reason to continue with the school in Ansel even though he found the entire thing mindlessly tedious at this point.

"The provisional combat trail held immediately after the written exam is completed and graded was handled by myself and participating against Jaune was Team LVDR, a competent third-year team. At this time Jaune claimed to be self-trained and conditioned and with further investigation after the trail was completed this became an accurate fact, which made his elimination of one opponent as well as lasting until the remainder of the team was in the ring and feat worthy of praise."

The way Glynda explained his feat in such a simple and matter of fact tone made himself want to frown but he kept his face forward and look neutral, playing the part of someone currently feeling out of their depth with the situation.

"Ah yes, I remember you telling me about that. Quite an impressive feat young man."

"Yes it was impressive but not so much that it was extraordinary, we have similar events happen frequently enough to make us take note of but rarely if ever do we follow up those displays with a meeting like this."

It wasn't exactly hard for him to keep his act up, his feats, as acted as they were on his part were barely scratching the surface of what he was capable of, and praise he was receiving even if it was muted by the way Glynda had been delivering it made his slightly uncomfortable expression all the more sincere though for reasons neither would expect.

"This meeting has been arranged in large part due to your performance today, one that legitimately surprised me. When we met this morning and I requested your presence it had been in my eyes a punishment for assumed inappropriate behavior, unbefitting what a Huntsman should be."

He watched hiding any giveaway as Glynda's expression bore a deep frown as she no doubt thought of the company Ozpin kept in Qrow. Ozpin's expression did not waver, keeping his eyes squarely on himself but he did seem to hunch down slightly at the topic.

"A punishment that I further compounded upon when I placed you against Ms. Nikos. Your display in combat against one of the most decorated fighters in all the four kingdoms has, however, impress myself greatly, and with my recommendation, the Headmaster has asked to meet with you to discuss some options that might interest you in advance of you joining Beacon in the coming months."

"Uh, okay, cool. Sounds great?" He wanted today to be done, he had no way to leave though so he simply remained patient as he stood before Ozpin.

"Before we get to those options though, the one's Glynda has lined out for you anyways I would like to discuss this impressive progress you have seemingly made. By all reports, and Professor Goodwitch keeps of so many of them, you have barely spent any time at any of the training facilities you had been directed too."

He watched as Ozpin pulled open an embarrassingly thin looking folder that was already on his desk.

"The only facility that you have spent any time in at all was one meant to teach Aura control, spending only a total of three weeks at the facility. While you were there though the instructors praised your natural ability at controlling your Aura, accomplishing in weeks what takes people normally months of hard work to effectively master. Aside from that, you visited no other facilities in preparation for attending Beacon Academy, with that information in hand I would like to know how exactly you have increased so dramatically in skill before we offer you anything."

The way Ozpin spoke as he pulled out the folder was the man he knew the Headmaster to be, the questions had purpose but he was already looking at him with an eye of interest, lining him up to be another of his stooges if he became a powerful Huntsman, or preparing to deal with him if he was perceived as his enemy. "Uh, could I say it was a Semblance thing and leave it at that? I know some people like to keep their Semblances a secret for a variety of reasons and mines kind of well, it feels a lot like cheating." He shrugged his shoulders in a sad gesture, playing up the act in as best of manner he could. He had no problem sharing his fake Semblance with people but he had to go through the ritual of pretending he was reluctant every time, or at least reluctant when talking to certain people, one of whom was definitely Ozpin.

"A Semblance, interesting, Glynda did you notice him doing anything during your time observing his fight with Ms. Nikos, anything that seemed out of place?"

"There were many opportunities that Mr. Arc seemed to capitalize on and grapple with Ms. Nikos but then ending up doing an ineffectual amount of damage, it happened enough times that it was noteworthy but no, I did not recognize anything that would be immediately identifiable as a Semblance."

"Uh, that, kinda, sorta, was my semblance, or at least the outcome of it." He felt both pairs of eyes turn toward him immediately. "Look I don't really have a full grasp on how it works. I don't fully understand how it works and I don't really have any control over activating it, it sort of is just on all the time, honestly, like right now it is still telling me all sorts of things." This small piece of information had caused Glynda to raise a single eyebrow in interest, Ozpin leaned forward in his chair, his expression being one of polite interest but his posture spoke of a much greater interest.

"An entirely passive Semblance, while uncommon are nothing out of the ordinary, you say it is giving you information? If I may ask what kind of information does it give you?"

"Uh, sorry, it's not exactly information. Like it doesn't tell me something it's more of a flash of 'Insight'. When it comes to fighting or training or even mastering my Aura control I would get an idea if I was doing something right or wrong just by doing the action, which is how I progressed so rapidly and why I haven't trained in any of the combat facilities, my 'Insight' just sort of told me that it was the wrong choice." He cast his eyes from Glynda who he had been responding too to Ozpin for a moment, before awkwardly coughing and looking at the floor in front of himself before speaking. "It also gives me 'Insight' into people, though those flashes it gives me are a lot harder to discern, I think it's because of different emotions or ideologies that people have, causing conflict on how exactly it helps me to perceive what I should from other people." At this line, much like the times, he would divulge his fake Semblance in his other lives Ozpin's expression faltered for an instant before being replaced by a carefully practiced facade.

"That is quite a robust Semblance, and no doubt quite helpful and likely the reason for such a sudden increase in skill, consider yourself lucky Mr. Arc, many Huntsman end up with less than ideal abilities considering their chosen profession."

He watched Glynda bow low to confer with Ozpin for a few moments in a series of quick private whispers before turning their combined attentions back to him, this time it was Ozpin who spoke, after taking a long sip from his coffee mug, seemingly composing his thoughts, though his eyes never strayed from himself.

"Mr. Arc, thank you for sharing so much about your Semblance, I hope I can see it put to use myself in the future, maybe in the coming days. Glynda has offered up her own limited time in hopes that you might agree to some preemptive Beacon Training, hopefully, to sharpen your skills and also so that she might observe your Semblance and potentially help you focus it if that is possible."

He paused for a moment looking neither interested or disinterested in the offer. "I, refuse."

"Are you absolutely sure young man? This is an offer that is rarely extended to anyone, many rich Huntsmen families would pay a large sum of Lien for such an opportunity."

"Be that as it may I still refuse." He could tell immediately that neither had expected this result and both looked unsure of where to go from there, before Glynda stepped forward.

"Is this to do with your Semblance?"

"Yes." He looked at Glynda for a moment, before flashing his eyes toward Ozpin, the movement had been instant but with both people carefully watching him he knew neither would miss it.

"Well that is unfortunate, thank you for your time Jaune."

* * *

He watched the young man step into the elevator and frowned.

Jaune Arc had an interesting and Unique Semblance, and judging by his reactions told a great deal. He had hidden his feelings well throughout the meeting but when he had turned down the offer which was very generous, the quick look he had received from the young man told him everything he needed to know.

Jaune's 'Insight' made the boy wary of himself, he wouldn't know why he would feel cautious but he ultimately would and it would likely be impossible to win the young man over.

He looked at the thin folder on his desk still and sighed, closing it and placing it off to the side, turning on his monitor and going back to watch Glynda's combat demonstrations, watching as Jaune interacted with Pyrrha Nikos and wondering what exactly he should do with the young man.

* * *

 **Whew that was a long one.**

 **Not much to really say though on my part, aside from Ozpin is aware of him on some level and due to the Fake Semblance there is an immediate gap between the two.**

 **Anyways, as always, please let me know what you think, even if it is to tell me I suck.**


	49. Chapter 49

Two terribly long months lay in front of Jaune each day passing at a snail's pace, every day leading up to the day where Yang would appear at Juniors seemed to be longer than the previous one.

He could do little to distract himself from the slowly approaching date, as he began to struggle for reasons not to just head to Patch himself, he had proven to himself with his trail on Roman that what the Relics had told him was true, he could have his Yang back. It felt like he could imagine a thousand reasons why traveling to Patch was the proper course of action, each one made so much sense that they were hard to ignore, thankfully he also had one reason not too, one singular reason turned the tide against the wave of reasons he felt he should.

He couldn't be certain if after his singular meeting with Ozpin that he was not not being monitored in some way, not visibly he was too good at spotting such a thing that was impossible, but if he traveled to Patch that information might reach Ozpin and he might jump to conclusions, all of which would be wrong of course but that meant little since Jaune would have no real way to dispute much of the speculation Ozpin might formulate in his mind.

He tried to ignore his built-in paranoia but it was a hard thing to ignore, even if he legitimately had no reason to be worried currently he couldn't help the feeling that continuously stuck with him in every life after he would meed Ozpin. Even if the untold lives he had lived since making his lifetime peaceful he still avoided raising Ozpin's suspicions on him, his fake Semblance going a long way in dissuading the ancient spirits interest beyond a tentative relationship, one he would keep solely so that Ozpin would not sacrifice his friends on fool errands.

Ruby and Pyrrha always being the worst two to fall for his tales and entrench themselves in his inner circle, he would find himself on the outskirts acting as a voice of reason and if need be an obstacle for them to deal with when Ozpin would inevitably send them somewhere too dangerous. This life could also lead to direct confrontation against his friends, something that he desperately hoped to avoid if possible but doubted it was feasible.

So stuck in Vale and for lack of anything else to do outside of his normal routine of working out as any Huntsman must do to keep their body in peak condition all the time he thought about his plan's for the relics, or more specifically the relic of Knowledge, it would be the first one he would have to reach.

He was still hoping for a moment of inspiration on how he might deal with the Relic's task but so far that moment had remained elusive. In the absence of that inspiration, he still needed a plan and that plan looked to unfortunately be leading towards leaning on Roman's expertise as well as his intact anonymity.

The Knowledge Relic was the most accessible relic of the four, it was where Ozpin always started in those lives he died and would come back as Oscar. It was guarded ineffectually by Leo Lionheart who held one of the two necessary pieces to access the vault.

The pocket watch would be a simple thing for Roman and Neo to acquire, probably even replace with a close enough replica that Lionheart would never even notice if they had enough time to study the watch before making the swap, Neo could also easily pass for someone young enough to attend Mistral and make the job even easier.

Leo was the weak link of Mistral's Vault, the hard part was Raven, she was too stubborn to be forced to do anything and too paranoid to be coerced as well. Anyone looking for the Maiden or showing any interest in anything regarding Ozpin or Salem and she would resist to the very end, at least she would until she was offered a deal that seemed beneficial enough for her to change her mind.

The deal that usually worked was her doublecrossing the people she was supposed to be helping. Something that Jaune didn't mind so much when she was doublecrossing Cinder and her flunkies, the prospect of the one she would double cross being himself though was a lot less appealing.

Fighting a fully realized and competent Maiden who he couldn't kill because he didn't know where the power would go wasn't exactly a fight he was confident he could win exactly.

There was a precedent set in some of his earliest lives that upon her death the power of the Spring Maiden would end up in Yang's possession, though that wasn't a guaranteed option either. Yang had a strong chance to receive the power but it wasn't the only outcome, Vernal was another person that ended up with the power frequently enough that it became noteworthy enough to remember.

Yang could convince Raven, maybe, she had a better chance than anyone else that was for certain.

Jaune rubbed his eyes gently, massaging them as he took a break from trying to piece together some form of a plan that had an actual plausible chance of success.

That success was heavily dependant on exactly how many Relics he might acquire before he would have to draw attention to himself and so far he had a solid idea that he could get one without alerting Ozpin or Salem, maybe, it all boiling down to how helpful Raven may or may not be.

Atlas is the forced stop and he knew that there was no way to get that relic without being discovered and he had no idea how he would accomplish it without the craziness that typically ensued around that time, Salem losing her patience and forcing a battle that distracted Ironwood and the eAtlas military went a long way in helping secure that Relic. Jaune knew he couldn't plan for that attack anymore, his recent actions of removing Cinder from her forces would already have her pulling back as it is.

Of course, she wouldn't stop with just the loss of a single pawn, Cinder was hardly important in Salem's grand scheme and in a few years could be easily replaced, and in those years she would continue to build her forces strength.

Jaune picked up his Scroll and checked the time, nodding once he did he heard the sounds of fighting far in the distance, as well as the consistent rumble of a train behind the noise of the gunfire.

Watching from the tree line with an expression anyone nearby would consider one of boredom he almost yawned as the train rumbled past where he stood, both ends still connected together at least for the moment.

Adam could be seen around the middle preparing his attack that would end the final threat, not paying attention to Blake who was slipping further down the train, preparing to detach it from Adam's car.

Jaune had discovered this even on his own, Blake wasn't exactly forthcoming in her lives about such details so Jaune had just spent time hanging around the trainyard in previous lives, keeping an eye out for Blake, or a train that arrived and had a crowd of people gather around it in a hurry.

Honestly finding the train had been easier than discovering from Blake that he should be looking for a train, to begin with, multiple lives spent wasting time trying to find a way to track Adam with only the smallest hints of information he could pick up until he essentially just got lucky for a bit.

His luck had had the opposite effect as well, killing Adam right now caused a whole slew of issues he didn't necessarily want to deal with. Though he wasn't out here to get the man to work for him either.

Jaune was out here beside a boring empty stretch of tracks in Forever Fall to meet with Salem's recruitment officer, Tyrian Callow was sent to Vale to check in on the whereabouts of Cinder for Salem. He never knew if he discovered what he did to Cinder and Emerald but he was given another task after Salem no doubt assumed Cinder was dead.

Tyrian was here to recruit Adam and his White Fang extremists, intending to use them to continue her attack on Vale without Cinder.

Jaune had experienced the attack enough times to know that it was as successful as Cinders attack, maybe even more so as Adam would push Grimm not only into Beacon but also the city of Vale proper, amounting to more civilian deaths than even the worst attack's led by Cinder.

That information never really surprised Jaune, while Cinder had no trouble killing anyone or anything, she was also, at least while in Vale, very driven by Salem's goals, that would change the longer she would survive, but Adam, he was here for revenge on humanity itself, so the more death he wrought the more he believed he succeeded. Unfortunately, because Blake was involved Adam would get a free pass for the moment.

It wasn't long until Jaune heard the soft crunch of leaves announcing the approach of the man he was waiting for and took the chance to step out from behind his tree.

Tyrian was a lunatic, plain and simple, and was one of the few people he could never count on being in the same place twice, especially in such an out of the way location like where he was right now. He was also exceptionally well trained and could notice a trap from a mile away so he could not be dealt with in the same way Cinder had been.

Pulling out one of his throwing knives with care, making as little noise as he could he took aim and whipped the small knife forward, the blade lancing forward with murderous intent but ending up being casually deflected with a sudden and surprised swipe of a scorpions tail.

"Well, that was rude, but also very interesting." The chilling tone of Tyrians voice asked as his tail swayed casually before his face as he leaned down to pick up the knife it had just swatted out of the air.

Jaune stepped out from behind his tree, calmly pulling Celica Mors from her scabbard, his free hand reaching into one of his many pockets, pulling out a small item that was all but concealed in his gloved hand.

"Ohh, not the illustrious Qrow Branwen, I must say I am a little disappointed, does Ozpin think so lowly of me to dispatch a second rate Huntsman."

Jaune knew this was how Tyrian fought, talking and goading, he tried to create openings by distracting his opponents and with his madman like personality, it was easy for people to be distracted, even more so with the dangerous tail attacking from all over the place. He wouldn't be goaded into responding and simply kept walking toward Tyrian.

"Not a talkative one are you? Well, I might not be able to make you talk but I bet I can make you scream." Tyrian lunged forward his wrist blades folding out and he swung in to attack, his opening move was always to close with his opponent.

Jaune braced for the imminent collision and discretely activated and dropped the small item he had been palming in his hand. The tiny device hitting the ground and activating just as Tyrian reached Jaune, an incredibly fast-paced fury of blows was exchanged in an instant telling both combatants volumes about the other.

Jaune knew everything he needed to know about Tyrian, his wild and unpredictable attacks, his grotesque levels of agility and flexibility, and his general disregard for attacking in any form of conventional manner. heavily overextending attacks that could be compensated for because of his tail acting as a counterbalance, he was an opponent of note and one Jaune always took seriously.

Tyrian learned a great deal about Jaune in the short clash, Jaune was frighteningly skilled. Dodging, blocking, or parrying every single attack with only the use of his single blade. He made himself as small of a target as possible so that Tyrian couldn't openly attack with everything at his disposal at once. His style was one who fought defensively often, but just because his stance was defensive in nature didn't mean his opponent couldn't attack on demand. Tyrian looked at his left thigh and frowned at the slice of cloth, he hadn't even seen when that had happened, though he knew it had been intentional simply by how his opponent's eyes had flicked to it for the briefest of moments after he had pulled back.

Jaune gave Tyrian no time to plan his attack and lunged after the Faunus immediate after he attempted to step back. His rush hadn't caught the Faunus off guard but it did turn the tables and had Tyrian scrambling to put up a worthwhile defense as he backpedaled a few steps more, sliding through the leaves.

Leaping up and bringing Celica Mors down in a heavy twohanded strike Jaune kept the attention of Tyrian focused on him, not giving his opponent time to look at the ground and notice through the displaced leaves the trap he had initiated. Both men were inside two overlapping Dust rune glyphs, one that speeds up and the other slowed down. Neither would activate until one of the occupants left the circle which would trigger both at once.

The person leaving the circle would become slowed to a crawl and the person remaining inside would be sped up rapidly.

The original version of this trap had the effects reversed but due to several 'accidents' Jaune had switched the order around to the way it was currently. Too many opponents trying to flee and getting a speed boost while he was essentially rooted in place had taught him that lesson well enough, not to mention all the times his opponents had been quick on the uptake and used the situation to turn the tables in their fight had been humiliating, to say the least when he would find himself waking up in his bed at the age of thirteen again shortly after the trap backfired on him.

Jaune's plan was to keep Tyrian from looking at the ground, a feat that was harder than anyone would consider. The ground is ever present in a person's vision and even if you aren't looking at it with any real intention of doing anything with it, your eyes will pick up on small things, a Huntsman's eye will pick up on even more minute details than the average person.

Jaune kept his attack's high aiming for the face and neck, trying to angle his blade to keep Tyrian from being able to dodge low and spot the trap. Tyrian wouldn't know the effect but he was more intelligent than many gave him credit for he would understand that he was trying to be forced from the circle and would immediately begin to fight back against that, even attempting to do the same to Jaune.

Celica Mors swept forward again and again with Tyrian barely managing to counter the blade as it glided through his guard on many occasions, slicing away at Aura every time it did so. Jaune made sure never to overextend himself though, the tail being a great equalizer in this fight, even with high Aura a sufficiently strong hit with the barb could pierce through and hit him with a lethal dose of poison.

Growing frustration could be seen in Tyrians attacks as his expression changed from a form a sadistic pleasure in the skill of his opponent to swings of annoyed violence, his madmen like demeanor disappearing and ferocious viciousness appearing as he began to take this fight truly serious. He always fought with a serious intent but this was more akin to another level. Gone was his smile and playful maneuvers, the fancy moves he would use to shock or frighten his opponents and in its place was an angry sneer and brutal attacks.

Jaune recognized this shift immediately and hunched his shoulders and kept his attack going, keeping Celica Mors swinging at a breakneck pace, weaving it in for as many attacks as possible, trying to force Tryian toward the edge as much as he could, even giving up on trying to prevent him from seeing the trap all around his feet, now just trying to inflict as much damage as he could.

The attack from Tyrian was instant, he pounced forward tackling Jaune bodily and sending both men rolling on the ground in a heap together.

Tyrian lashing out rapidly with quick tail strikes while he used his arms and legs to the best of his ability to prevent Jaune from fighting back, his legs locking Jaune's legs quite handily while both his arms wrestled for leverage over Jaune's sword arm, holding it down and trying to work open his grip to pry away the dangerous blade.

Jaune wrenched his sword arm with as much leverage as he could trying to break it free of Tyrians grip, the Faunus, however, was adamant on keeping the arm pinned leaving Jaunes another arm free to fend off tail strikes as best it could.

Due to the awkward position Tyrians tail could only make attacks toward Jaune's head and after realizing this he began to use his neck to avoid the attacks and use his free arm to fight back.

His position meant any strike he might make with his armguard was going to be fairly ineffectual at best, even with the added weight of the armguard factored in. With that in mind and weaving his head to dodge incoming tail strikes, he wormed his free hand over in between Tyrians arms and twisted it in deep, like he was trying to dislodge Tyrians hand. As soon as one of Tyrians arms was locked between his armguard and Celica Mors he extended the hidden shield inside his arm guard, the hidden mechanism snapping out with shocking force, far faster and with more weight than Crocea Mors had ever been capable of.

The sudden action caught Tyrian fully off guard and with the positioning of Jaune's limbs a sickening crack was heard by both men and its source was immediately obvious.

The lower half of Tyrians left arm sported an angry red bulge of flesh, immediately swelling and discoloring rapidly as the broken limb strained visibly under the skin, threatening grotesquely to break through the thin layers of flesh and muscle holding it inside.

The loss of function in Tyrians left arm as well as the surprise allowed Jaune to free his sword arm. Still pinned beneath Tyrian and lacking the ability to shift his grip Jaune did the next best thing to stabbing Tyrian and instead drove the pommel of Celica Mors into Tyrians face.

A broken arm did little to slow Tyrian, and the pommel of a sword to the face did even less in the grand scheme of this fight. The two actions combined though were enough to daze the Faunus for a split second, enough time for Jaune to detangle his legs and push out from underneath Tyrians weight.

As he was doing so though he could see the Stinger, the great equalizer in this fight whip around from an unexpected angle, hammering Jaune hard in his ribcage, the blow driving the wind from his lungs as he swung Celica Mors hard and wide at Tyrians face as he retreated, the swing forcing Tyrian to do the same or potentially lose the top half of his head.

Struggling to refill his lungs with air Jaune put some much needed space between himself and Tyrian, no longer trying to keep the Faunus's attention away from the ground and the slowly revealing trap beneath the leaves and simply sought to recover from the blow, hoping that Tyrian with his freshly broken arm wouldn't press whatever advantage he thought he might have.

Tyrian would give Jaune no such moment to recuperate, no doubt sensing that Jaune was to tough an opponent to give any momentary respite too, he launched himself in fast, firing his weapon off at close range while flailing around his broken arm, using it as a club, hoping the blades on his weapon might connect and shave away some Aura.

Jaune found it nearly impossible to take into account the tail and madly flailing broken arm and had to focus his attention on the deadlier of the two and found the broken limb being repeatedly bashed into him doing little damage and hoping that would continue as he sorted out how he would deal with Tyrian.

The fight was going about as well as it normally did, he didn't expect the blow from the tail but luckily it landed on his breastplate, preventing it from actually stabbing into him and only driving the air from his lungs. Tyrian knew that puncture had failed, having full feeling in the appendage meant Jaune couldn't pretend to be weakened from the poison and trick Tyrian from lowering his guard.

The trap beneath the leaves still remained, for the most part, hidden but he doubted he could actually utilize it at this point, beyond maybe a finishing move, Tyrian was giving a good as he got and even with a broken arm would likely not retreat at this point, the only thing that could pull him away from a fight like this where he was so focused would be a direct order from Salem herself and that was not going to come out here in the middle of Forever Fall.

Jaune still had a whole mess of tricks at his disposal and while he didn't exactly like to waste such hard to replace items especially since he had already wasted his Dust trap he also wasn't so stubborn to pig-headedly continue fighting in such a contest that could just as easily end with his loss and death.

Tyrian's attack gave no opportunity to draw out Crocea Mors and use it's frightening function, a shame really because it did not require anything besides a little dust for its trick to function. That left one of the multiple ways his Armguard could function, each of the four special shell's could feasibly end this fight but using them at this close of range would only catch Jaune in as much of the blast as Tyrian so that left the remaining function, the device that while the hardest to replace was clearly the only one suited to this fight.

Tyrian kept the fighting close, his attack's over time becoming less fluid as the pain from his broken arm became less easy to ignore, a side effect of using a broken limb like a haphazard club.

Jaune let Tyrian swing in close with his tail, close enough that Jaune could step into the attack and let it sail harmlessly past his entire body as he slid his armguard perfectly in front of Tyrians face. The attack timed to perfection after lifetimes of honing it to precision and just as Tyrian finished the involuntary blink that no one could prevent from seemingly almost being struck directly in the face was when Jaune activated the flash charge concealed inside the Armguard.

At such a close range even shut eyes would not be able to fully block the super bright flash of light, but Jaune used all his experience to make sure Tyrian was completely blinded by the effect.

The flash function was several times more powerful than that of a flashbang, devised solely to render the target blind. The device didn't, however, make any noise, leaving the intended target capable of hearing still, though the momentary blindness was more than enough for Jaune to make use of.

A shout of anger followed the brief instantaneous flash of radiant white light, Tyrian stumbling away awkwardly as he swung his limbs and tail erratically in a desperate attempt to stave off the attack that would follow such an action.

Jaune tucked his shoulders in tight and dove through Tyrian's flailing appendages, feeling his Aura being raked heavily as it blocked multiple wild attacks.

Celica Mors stuck home in Tyrians sternum, a blow that would cause a lesser opponent to freeze in pain only made Tyrian thrash violently, his blind eyes being unable to spot his opponent but now that he was pierced he knew where to focus, and in his death throes he brought down his Tail, again and again, expecting to feel it eventually dig into his opponents flesh but only finding empty air with every swing.

Jaune stood off to the side of Tyrian, keeping his blade lodged firmly in place and pushing with all his strength to make it appear he was directly in front of Tyrian, baiting the tail to continue to strike empty air as he pushed him closer and closer to the edge of his Dust trap. Reaching the edge he hurtled Tyrian bodily across the threshold, the barrier now broken Jaune felt time change around him for a moment, his body accelerating to an unnatural speed while Tyrians was hit with the opposite effect, slowing to a crawl, the two opposite effects making it seem like time was almost standing still for Jaune as he drew Celica Mors out of Tyrian's sternum and placed it against his unprotected throat and pushed down, the wide blade of Celica Mors pushing all the way through with ease severing Tyrians spine as it jutted out the back of the Faunus's ruined neck.

The lingering effects of the trap, the enhanced speed, slowly faded from Jaune as he withdrew his blade from Tyrian's neck. Taking a few steps back he surveyed the scene and let out a great sigh of relief as he let himself fall to the ground and lay still for several long minutes, letting his mind free for a moment to wander as he began to slowly feel the pain of his injuries now that the adrenaline was wearing off.

"I hate you Tyrian. Possibly more than any other opponent, I hate you the most. You are the opposite to everything I try and do, and I utterly hate you for that." Jaune laid spread out on the ground talking to the corpse of his enemy, the brief fight having lasted only a few short minutes and the ferocity sapped him of much of his strength and energy. "Cinder, ever so predictable, dies to the same trap every single time, sometimes easier, sometimes harder, but you. Oh, not you, you have to be insane, do you know how many lives I have existed and even if this outcome is the typical outcome do you have any idea how many times I have lost to you? It's god damn too many, and I'm getting really sick of it."

Jaune struggled to his tired feet and gave himself a moment to carefully inspect himself.

His clothing was stained with grass and dirt and a few places and had nasty purple blotch where poison had been ejected from Tyrians tail, luckily the fluid was remarkably easy to clean as an unsightly purple blotch in the middle of his otherwise pristine white chest plate would be annoying to replace or repair.

"But you are a healthy reminder Tyrian, you make sure I don't get sloppy or complacent, so as much as I absolutely hate fighting you I'm sure somewhere really deep in my subconscious, I mean really buried deep I probably appreciate your insanity on some level." Jaune ached, tense muscles still attempting to relax after such a brief and brutal encounter. Bending low he deftly sliced the tip of Tyrians tail off, not because of any form of malice, simply because he needed to dispose of the body and carrying the dead Faunus he didn't feel like being unintentionally pricked by the stinger, not that without Tyrian's actual muscle control he would get much of the toxin into him it would still make him sick and light headed and he didn't personally care to experience that.

Gathering the remains of the dust trap trigger mechanism Jaune could find he hefted Tyrians lifeless body over his shoulder with a grunt of effort, caring the body deep into Forever Fall.

* * *

 **Hours later, Ozpin.**

* * *

The afternoon had been filled with interesting developments, everything that had been brought to his attention had him keenly interested in what had transpired out in the depths of Forever Fall.

A simple train robbery that wasn't exactly so simple, it was a Valesian Cargo train, but judging by the remains of the security forces that manned it, not even taking into account the amount present but this train had definitely been transporting something that should not have been in Vale whatsoever.

The remains of a what Ozpin could only assume as a prototype spider mech as he had never seen another as it lay destroyed among a massive collection of Atlas military marked security droids.

As much as he considered General Ironwood a friend and ally, this discovery alone strained that friendship because he could not think of a single potential explanation that would account for all this security, not only that this amount of defense what had it been meant to protect and fail.

Several of Vales best Huntsmen were already hunting for any evidence or trail as to where the cargo may have been taken too or who exactly was responsible.

Qrow had been among the number sent out in search of answers and due to his advantages had quickly returned from his reconnaissance with a report on evidence of a fierce fight further up the tracks, leading to where Ospin currently stood to inspect the scene with a keen eye.

The perfect circle of disturbed leaves made it obvious to even the most novice of trackers that something had occurred here and the simple answer was a fight, one that ended with at least one death considering the amount of blood that covered the ground, enough that whoever it was who lost it had to be dead.

Qrow had picked up a trail among the leaves and set off to follow it, the impressions had been visible enough that once discovered it was clear only a single man walked away from this fight and had made sure to take his dead opponent with him, the trail of blood making that fact obvious.

Ozpin trusted Qrow to either be able to track the trail or not, knowing the man to be better suited to that task than himself so he busied himself studying the odd circle on the ground, eventually finding near its exact center a few damaged pieces of metal, each damaged to some degree and not nearly enough remnants to explain their function but he guessed they were likely the cause in some way the odd pattern.

Moving to inspect the blood trail more closely for the first time he noticed an out of place patch of Purple hidden among the multitude of different shades of red.

The Purple liquid, upon inspection, appeared to be quite toxic to whatever it touched, any time he spotted a few drops of the purple substance whatever it rested on appeared to be dying rapidly.

He recognized what it was through the process of elimination, it had to be the byproduct of some form of Faunus which would no doubt implicate the White Fang in the train theft.

The gentle flap of wings was all the signal Ozpin needed to announce Qrows return.

"I found a body Oz, around a mile straight into the woods, just unceremoniously dumped on the ground."

"Hmm, why would a person, likely his opponent bother to carry the body deep into the woods and simply leave it to be discovered so easily?"

"I have no idea, do you want to take a look for yourself or..."

"I don't think so, though please make sure that someone does thoroughly photograph the scene, I would like to go over the detail's later but right now I have an uncomfortable call to make to Atlas."

* * *

 **Forever Fall, Jaune.**

* * *

Qrow and another figure returned to the sight were Tyrians body lay dumped unceremoniously on the ground, or where it should have been anyways. The lifeless body was now securely tucked away inside a hollow oak tree some two hundred odd meters away from where Qrow now stood looking confused.

Qrow would not rediscover the corpse but he would spend days out here scanning every blade of grass he could trying to figure out what happened to it.

He let the body be found, and through Qrows thorough search for it, he would find carefully planted evidence that Atlas was not only responsible for the dead bodies disappearance but there would be enough subjective evidence to strain the relationship between Ozpin and Ironwood for many years, a pleasant side effect of his careful planning.

It was too late for Ironwood to influence Jacque Schnee into keeping Weiss in Atlas and with Atlas shamed, or at least privately admonished by Vale it would keep Atlas's influence out of the Vale council for many years going forward.

Tyrians body would remain inside that hollow Oak for years until Jaune had time to secretly dispose of it properly, he shuddered slightly at the memories of doing this, the smell was a terrible and lingering thing in his long memory.

* * *

 **Look at Jaune, going around killing his enemies and messing with global politics, so inspiring.**

 **So Cinder, Emerald, Mercury, and now Tyrian all dead, whew I have Jaune doing all kinds of work at the moment.**

 **I love the idea that Cinders disappearance has Tyrian making a stop in Vale, his inability to find her and likely discovering that the Fall Maiden still being alive would have Salem send him to recruit the only force in the area capable of attacking Vale.**

 **Tyrian I figure would be one of the most difficult fights for Jaune due to his particular way of dealing with his actual opponents.**

 **Cinder could be dealt with by a trap and Hazel would likely die to a massive skill difference simply because he feels more like a berserker style fighter than someone with any actual Skill in combat, using his Aura and Semblance to essentially just tank forever. Watt's would not be much of a fight either in my mind but that's only because I have no visual representation in the show to know how exactly he might fight.**

 **Tyrian though, oh man, fighting someone who will attack in unpredictable and potential suicidal manner makes a frightening opponent for Jaune and one that tests him in his lives still, also the fact that he has to do the fight so early to prevent him from recruiting the Fang makes it a more interesting fight since it is a simple 1v1 fight.**

 **Anyways it was fun to write a combat heavy chapter again, I know they are not everyone's favorite but I look forward to them personally, and I love reading others for inspiration.**

 **Anyways as always lemme know what you think even if it to tell me that I suck.**


	50. Chapter 50

**One Week before Beacon Initiation.**

* * *

"Again, I request you to please allow my own team to go over the evidence as you have collected it, I'm sure with access to the proper equipment as well as the engineer's who design Atlas's robotic's we could at the very least be cleared of some of this suspicion."

"General Underwood, we have already provided you with multiple drones for your engineer's to examine, as well as provided copies of all evidence we have gathered, and we have been quite generous on allowing you time to build a case with the material we have provided but as the speaker for the Valesian Council, at this time I can honestly say we are thoroughly disappointed with all the time we feel has been wasted.

"Speaker please, these matter's take time to uncover the truth. Your copies have been helpful but I feel having actual access to the originals might allow for additional information to be gleaned. The items could be examined under Valesian supervision if necessary, I simply just want the best possible ability to clear Atlas from any perceived involvement for this incident."

"Unfortunately we cannot trust Atlas officials to not make a biased report in the instance, which I am sure you can understand. A train loaded with 'Unregistered' Atlas military security droids, all damaged or destroyed enough to be inoperable. An already serious situation on its own. Its cargo, which is missing is assumed highly dangerous, and all our investigation has led us too so far is the White Fang is responsible for the robbery, but the real question, and one that still has not been answered, is why was so much Atlesian hardware in Vale in the first place."

Ozpin who was near the rear of the sparsely populated meeting chamber sighed in frustration as once again the meeting was devolving into a circle of the same two questions being asked back and forth over and over again.

Meetings like this had been happening for weeks with already, the only difference this time was General Ironwood was physically present in this instance as a show of good faith, lacking his usual entourage of security. That meant little all things considered as James Ironwood was considered by many in the world as one of the most skilled Huntsmen to ever live, a reputation that had not diminished with his long military career.

Ozpin believed that at the very least James was ignorant to the reason why Atlas had so much hardware moving through Vale territory, he was not Atlas's single General who made every decision.

That information did little to ease his mind, as well as he knew James he couldn't say that there had not been others he trusted in the past who hadn't been swayed by his opponent. He liked to believe James character would make that impossible but Salem could be very convincing at times.

Ozpin looked around the room, wondering if any new faces had been invited now that the meeting was essentially pointless and he had nothing better to do. He was here as a simple observer, his status as Headmaster as well as being one of the first to be notified of the situation, he was not asked to participate considering his well-known affiliation with James Ironwood, the man who had been chosen to deal with this situation on behalf of Atlas.

Atlas could no longer be trusted in his opinion, even if it wasn't James who shipped the equipment to Vale someone in Atlas had, and that someone was capable enough to do so without leaving enough evidence to be found even after an unofficial investigation had been launched by James himself.

The times in his lives where he wished to use the Relic of Knowledge were few and far between ever since his question on whether or not Salem could be defeated was answered, but right now he desperately wished he could, even if the question was a simple one in the grand scheme of things. Not knowing who was currently trustworthy and who wasn't was a cause for much anxiety.

 _'I wonder, what exactly a situation like this would show to Jaune Arc, how would his insight read into this situation.'_ Ozpin had found much of his spare time was spent thinking about Jaune Arc's unique Semblance. Very few Semblances are alike enough to be considered identical aside from the hereditary Semblances and those are exceedingly rare, and not without the guaranty that they will not change with time or seemingly skip generations as well. Many Huntsmen shared similar Semblances with slight differences in how they function.

Intuition based Semblances weren't overly common things, and most who had them wouldn't classify them as such either, many would consider them more in the vein of heightened awareness, like an unnatural ability to see their surroundings, and they would definitely not be able to use it to help them in conversations like Jaune seemingly did during their short meeting where he turned down Glynda's very generous offer.

Ozpin smiled at that memory, it was so rare to see Glynda so put off that he wished he could have recorded her reaction after Jaune had left.

Jaune could be very useful if he could be brought in the fold but at the same time from the short meeting Ozpin doubted that Jaune could ever be convinced to work for him directly, his Semblance would keep him at arm's length from people he should not trust and he couldn't exactly make any argument to how he was exactly trustworthy, how many promises had he failed to keep over his lives, far too many to remember, or at least that's what he liked to believe, in all honestly he remembered every failed promise, the list was long.

Jaune would be attending Beacon and when, not if he passed initiation but when, he needed to be placed on a team that would have the best opportunity to fall into his circle of influence.

Pulling out a tablet from his bag he began to thumb through tab after tab of students that would be attending initiation, the list was excessively long and out of the two hundred odd people attending less than sixty will actually pass and be accepted, that was unfortunately just how these things worked, the academies tried their best but there were simply not enough teachers to meet the demand, and all the academies had to have some form of final screening process.

Jaune would pass, if he wanted to and currently that was the case, it would be possible for his Semblance to potentially change his mind but he had no way to control that or even know it had until he appeared absent at initiation day. So assuming he would be present he began to go through the list of students who would also be present and began to structure teams around Jaune as the leader, a Semblance like his would make him a competent leader.

Ms. Nikos will likely strive to place herself in Jaune's vicinity, the sheltered champion from Mistral had taken quite a shine to Jaune in their brief time together and with her personality, she would no doubt be easy to persuade in helping in his fight against Salem. If she then tied herself to Jaune he would be forced to choose between helping or abandon his teammate.

Ozpin checked a box on his tablet making a clear indication that the two would be placed in close proximity during the Emerald Forest trial for the best possible chance for them to team up.

Arranging partners was something he could influence on some level but as for the other two teammates, that was harder, it had long been the tradition for teams to form with pairs being coupled together with matching relics.

Searching for hours while the pointless meeting spun on alongside him Ozpin ruled out a great majority of the students attending the initiation, most having unsuitable personalities for what little he knew about Jaune and Pyrrha. It was surprising but he actually had a much better idea of what sort of teammates Pyrrha would like than Jaune.

He had inspected his file several times and it was comically sparse of information outside of the basic important details, his lack of use of Hunstman facilities in Vale has kept any knowledge that might have been gathered to be a sum total of nothing. Even his time in Ansel made for little to be inferred, if it wasn't for the fact that it was Glynda herself who unlocked his Aura, and Nicholas Arc, a trusted Huntsman was his father and vouched for the boy's whereabouts for the past several years leading up to now he would have considered Jaune to be one of Salem's agents, but no, he just assumed that Jaune had on some level unlocked his Semblance in some fashion before his Aura and didn't know exactly what it was.

The search for acceptable partners that also might be willing to work for him was an awful criteria to search for and did not land him many successes, at least not any that he could count on with confidence. There was a pair from Mistral that looked promising and already worked very well as a pair themselves. Ozpin made a notation beside both of their profiles as possible teammates and kept searching, eventually turning to a folder that had very long list of both foreign and local applicants that hadn't initially made the cut for Beacon, remember at least one individual that stood out enough but was turned down in favor of another, thinking maybe that may have been an error he made an additional note on this applicants file, to check and see if they are still interested in Beacon as they would no doubt be a perfect fit for his Ideal team.

* * *

"I have chosen the wrong career Ozpin. This is not the first time I have said that line but I think it might be the first time I really mean it."

James Ironwood sat in a comfortable chair inside Ozpin's usually sparse office, the chair he sat in and the one Ozpin sat in opposite him had been brought in from somewhere else in anticipation of this outcome. Each man held a drink of varying degree's of stiffness, Ironwoods being the stronger of the two.

"I only caught sight of you a few times during that debacle of a meeting, you didn't look overly invested in any of its proceedings."

"No, I suppose not, unlike Atlas, I have no say on the council and was present as an observer and after it devolved into, well what it devolved into, I spent my time on hopefully more promising endeavors."

"I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that the entire meeting was a waste of time then. I understand the importance behind it but neither my side nor your councils will change until some new evidence is discovered, which is why it is so frustrating that they won't even let my people inspect the remaining robots, especially that Spider Droid."

"They are politicians, scared ones at that James, I don't personally believe any of them care for any of this any more than you but they are doing their duty to their Kingdom just as you are doing yours to Atlas. Also if you wanted to inspect the Spider Droid maybe you should have seemed less eager to examine it, it was a clear message that you at least knew nothing of what was on that Train and that the Spider Droid might not be Atlas technology at all, only made to appear that way unlike the other security robots that are clearly Atlas hardware."

James had no response to this aside from an annoyed snort, knowing that his eagerness to have his engineers inspect the droid may be the cause of some of the frustrations with the Vale council repeatedly denying him access to it.

"Let's get off this topic and talk about what we have both discovered through our personal investigations." James leaned forward and produced a scroll laying it on Ozpin's desk it began to display a list of items, the names or descriptions of many of the items being hidden for Atlas security reasons. "These are what I believe is the missing cargo of your train. Most of the hidden items and descriptions are simply weapons and ammunition that need to be kept concealed for a variety of protocols but they are simply that weapons and ammunition. The big problem is that something much more dangerous I believe was on that train as well. I have my agents back in Atlas pouring over every record we have trying to discover their whereabouts but right now we are currently missing four Paladin's."

"Jame, are these Paladins in any way related to our conversation about eventually not having to rely on Huntsmen anymore, a soon to be proven alternative?"

"Yes Ozpin, the Atlas military has as of right now potentially lost four very dangerous assets to the White Fang of all people."

There was a long drawn out silence as Ozpin absorbed this information before finally speaking.

"Well, that's troubling, to say the least."

"Please don't remind me, I'm still hoping that they somehow got sent to a storage facility and the paperwork indicating so has been mismanaged but that is a very low possibility. But enough about my problems have you had any luck discovering your mystery body or discovering who or what made it disappear?"

"So far no on either question. The best anyone who knows about the missing body can guess or assume is that by the simple description Qrow could provide was that by his appearance, clothing wise didn't match the White Fang. As for its whereabouts who knows. Grimm don't typically eat corpses since they don't attract them and there were no Grimm tracks anywhere near the body. It is most likely someone left the body there with the intent to return to recover it later and that timeframe was the unfortunate window of time where Qrow came back to report on his discovery."

"There is one other option, the body was left to be discovered, and once it was it was removed once knowledge of it existing was known."

"Yes that fact has crossed my mind multiple times James, often enough that I have employed every Huntsman I know of with Semblances that might help find some hidden clue at the location but no one was able to find any hidden scrap of evidence or even the slightest connection to the Train robbery except that they happened in close proximity on the same day."

"Hmm, that is unfortunate."

Hours passed by slowly as the two men exchanged theories both mundane and exotic on the purpose behind the theft and the likely outcome being planned with what the thieves had acquired. Eventually, long past the point of the evening when many were already deep in sleep did James Ironwood depart, the liquor doing little to affect him as he still managed to stride confidently from the room, at least after making sure his legs were up for the task of keeping him upright.

The elevator door had barely had a chance to close as Ozpin heard the familiar flap of wings and a gentle tap on one of the many windows his office sported to signal Qrow was tired of remaining hidden outside on his perch.

The transformation Qrow ran through as he hopped through the window in his avian form and a humanoid foot gently touching the floor an instant after was a masterpiece of careful practice.

"I take it we don't trust old Metal Head anymore?" Qrow asked as he poured himself the stiffest drink out of anyone who had been in the office tonight, draining the glass and pouring himself a second which he took a more gentle sip from, his lips pursing in a satisfied ahh.

"For the time being at least no, I don't think he personally has betrayed us but I feel it would be better to be more cautious going forward for the time being."

"S'fine by me, I feel I have made my opinion well known,"

"Indeed." Ozpin poured himself a stiff drink as well, one much stronger than he had been having during the entire night leading up to this point. "So are we as positive as we can be that our missing body belonged to one of Salem's best assassins?"

"We can't be positive of anything really, but yeah, it took a lot of fact-checking from old reports on crimes we thought were too precise to be anything but having something to do with Salem and it seems like the body that I lost is very likely Tyrian Callows. Which is a good thing right Oz? Someone out there took down one of Salem's best?"

"If it was you, or Glynda or even some of my other agents who did the deed then I would be ecstatic Qrow, but Tyrian, from what little we were able to learn was a dangerous opponent, his death means that someone out there who is affiliated with neither Salem or ourselves killed Tyrian to make a statement, his body was left where it would be discovered and then hidden immediately afterward. If I had to guess, it was moved to make the same statement to Salem, I can't see any other reason which means this new party is far bolder than anything I have even considered. It also means that this new party had the information of where the train would be and when the robbery was planned to take place if he could intercept Tyrian when he did."

"Jeeze, yeah I didn't consider any of that Oz." Qrow looked at his glass for a moment and considered finishing its contents but decided against it for the moment, setting the glass down gently. "I assume I wasn't asked here to simply listen in on the meeting, you have a job for me?"

"Yes, one that your not going to like. How would like to go visit your Sister?"

* * *

 **The day before Beacon Initiation starts.**

* * *

Roman could honestly say he enjoyed the freedom he was currently experiencing. The knowledge that Cinder, as well as her flunkies, were dead was a huge relief in his mind and while he did feel slightly bad for Emerald since he liked her, seeing a lot of himself in her, just younger and less refined.

Jaune hadn't given him an answer yet on whether or not they would go through with trying to make this change permanent but he had been kind enough to inform him on how some upcoming competitions would turn out as well as a bit of investment advice. Both of which earned Neo and himself a modestly impressive bank balance, far more than he could have made with months of successful criminal work.

The information and the Lien it provided was definitely meant to keep him complacent for the foreseeable months and he knew that and was happy with it as well, kicking back and relaxing was not something he really had much of an opportunity to do in his other lives and he was appreciating every moment of this.

Neo, on the other hand, could only be content to relax for so long and her silent pestering had him still actively participating in illegal activities, though the less noticeable kinds, some simple pickpocketing to keep his skills sharp, it wasn't much but it made Neo happy and that honestly made him smile a little too whenever Neo looked pleased.

Jaune wasn't overly busy himself, Roman could commonly find him inside Junior's, never taking part in any of the dancing or drinking that happens inside the building, nor finding his way into the back rooms where some of the more adult excitement took place. He spent his time at the bar, towards a low traffic corner and spent his time slowly drinking single glasses of alcohol as he scribbled in a small journal.

In the few glances, he had seen the inside of the booklet, Jaune making no real effort to conceal it, he could not make sense of what was being written. It was a mystery and one that likely had something to do with the Relic's, which meant that on some level Jaune was preparing for the mission to acquire the four relics for himself.

Roman didn't find it surprising that tonight of all nights Jaune was once again inside Juniors though his ever-present book was absent. It was the final night before he would be attending Beacon and Jaune had asked him to meet him here at a very specific time.

"Evening time police." Roman joked as he sat down next to Jaune.

"That is not an accurate nickname Roman."

"No, but it rolls off the tongue better than Multiverse Making Man." Roman grinned as he watched Jaune roll his eyes so hard that everything but the whites vanished for a moment. "Don't worry I'll eventually think of something that fits right, or not, using these bad names is rather entertaining."

"Yeah, a real riot. But enough of that, you know why I wanted to see you tonight?"

"Yeah, little Red, right?"

"Think you can arrange your little robbery again? I would do it myself but well, it's easier if I'm less involved in this circumstance."

It was fun watching essentially an Immortal being, the subtle facial expressions, or involuntary twitches Jaune would showcase when he spoke of certain events, the best one to watch for was a subtle eyebrow twitch whenever he talked about something he needs to do, the twitch being a brief reminder of an instance going wrong on some level and leading to a wasted life, or at least that's what Roman liked to believe, and it was a funny thing to assume. "Yeah, no problem, anything else or was that it?"

"Nope, that's everything."

"No, it's not!"

"No, it really isn't."

Roman looked at Jaune for a moment before shrugging and headed over to speak to Junior to acquire a handful of henchmen for his little job for the night.

A quick exchange of some Lien and a Handshake and Roman was set for the night, turning to leave, he caught sight of a familiar figure strut confidently into the crowded club making a beeline for where Junior still stood.

Of course he knew what tonight was and he couldn't say he wasn't tempted to stick around and watch this but he figured he would be the nice guy and let the two have their privacy, or at least as much as they could in the middle of the packed club, increasing his pace slightly Roman slipped out a side door just as Yang Xiao Long was about to be stealthily approached by their mutual friend.

* * *

 **Another reality, another life.**

* * *

The attack had been expected at some point, Jaune as much as he had allowed himself to be selfish at her request had still made sure that his family was at least prepared for this eventual outcome.

She stood separated from her husband and children by a wall of Grimm.

Jaune, her husband, stood protectively with their two daughters, even now with a serious wound to his abdomen bleeding freely, he protected them with his life.

Roma, their eldest, stood beside her father swinging her weapon, her hair a frightening crimson, sharing part of her mothers trait of becoming stronger with the more damage she took but instead of simply her eyes changing color it was her hair, right now glowing an angry red as she fought alongside her father, doing their best to reach her.

Blake, their youngest, stood behind her father and sister and fought in her own way, her face clear of all emotion as she could manage so that she could concentrate on her Semblance. In front of her father and sister, the ground shook violently, causing the Grimm the pair fought to fall and tumble uncontrollably, impaling themselves on their own dangerous appendages or the blades of any of the Huntsmen nearby.

She knew that her family would reach her, but she also knew that they didn't see what was coming next.

Behind the wall of Grimm, past even where she fought now cut off from the other Huntsmen was a monster that was both a Grimm and at the same time, not one. It led the attack, directing the Grimm as a general would when it was attacking the fights would be over in an instant, the grotesque spider/human Grimm hybrid brutally overpowering any opponent.

She couldn't let her family fight the monster, maybe if Jaune was uninjured she might have considered it but in his state, she doubted he could actually handle even fighting the Grimm in front of him without 'their' Blake's Semblance.

Once long ago she had asked Jaune to be selfish and this was the end result of the request. She felt no remorse in that knowledge though, instead, she felt happy that she was able to have something like this, and to truly understand what the price was.

Eye's flashing from Lilac to Red, a shade so dark that it put her Daughter Roma's currently angry red hair to shame, she lept toward the monstrous creature, striking powerfully, a pillar of Blue flame, igniting and catching the creature completely off guard, a hellish shriek of pain rocked her ears as the creature, burned and withered away in a greasy black smear of residue that all Grimm turn into upon their death.

A faint smile appeared on her lips as a trickle of blood escaped from the edge, a great hole in her chest remained where one of the creature's legs had pierced her the moment she had ignited the flame.

* * *

Her life began to play out before her eye's as she found herself reliving every moment, the good years that had Summer in her life and the hard years where she had to take care of her father and her sister after Summer's death.

Her time spent as Signal, the friends she made back on Patch, everything was played out in a replay of her entire life, it was relaxing to watch how her life had been when she was young, before how her first life ended and now how her second life had also come to an end.

It was the night before she would be attending Beacon, and she found herself approaching Junior's club. It might be a childish memory but she found herself looking forward to this memory of how she manhandled the entire establishment.

She had entered the club and approached Junior, the knowledge after the fact being that she had also seen Roman Torchwick at the same time had been interesting to learn.

She didn't remember that Roman had looked her direction when she entered but that had hardly been even remotely where her focus was that night, but she couldn't for that instant not focus on that fact, he had looked at her with recognition before leaving.

She hadn't even finished considering what exactly that might have meant to the grand scheme of her lives when her body stumbled.

'Wait, What?'

* * *

 **Yang, the here and now.**

* * *

The sudden control, or loss of control of her body was jarring as she had been a simple observer to events, but now she was in control of what was happening.

Unfortunately what was happening was an unceremonious trip to the floor, an embarrassing turn of events as she had been strutting confidently through the club and would now look dumb as she was about to bounce off the floor gracelessly.

Except she didn't, her fall was halted with by a pair of well muscled arms, arm's that felt not only familiar but comfortable, twisting slightly she turned her eyes to the person who was now helping her to her feet and she couldn't help but gasp in shock.

"Jaune!"

"Hi, Yang."

* * *

 **Oh boy.**

 **Alot going on here, Atlas and Vale, the relationship being strained, a move that Jaune conciously makes happen.**

 **Though here is the first time something Jaune hadn't exactly planned for happen's, his earlier meeting with Ozpin has garnered some interest in Jaune's fake Semblance. In other lives, Ozpin doesn't learn about the fake Semblance until after Jaune is already in Beacon and has his team formed and there would be little Ozpin could do to interfere but now he has some time to plan and if interested to see how, or if he might use the Semblance favourably.**

 **Ozpin was also displayed by his short meeting with Qrow after James departed that he is at least partially distrustful of Atlas currently as well and by simple appoximation James, even though he doesn't think James is the person to blame.**

 **Now for those of you who have read the first half of this story and didn't skip to the new additions this chapter gives you the names and Semblances of Yang and Jaune's two children, Roma, named after Roman, and Blake named after, well Blake.**

 **Also look Yang's back for all of you who have been asking when Yang, well Yang now!**

 **Next Chapters sitting in Tidyfrogs pile of work already, so hopefully it will be ready to go soon enough as well.**

 **So as always, lemme know what you think, even if it is just to tell me that I suck.**


	51. Chapter 51

"Jaune!" Yang's eyes went wide in shock, not understanding what had happened in these last few seconds, thinking that she was simply witnessing her life flashing before her eyes, only to have control of her body given to herself all at once again, and in that same instant, Jaune, her Jaune was right there to catch her in her first step.

"Hi, Yang." Jaune watched Yang, her eyes widening in shock as she sought to understand what had just happened. He stepped back a pace after he stopped Yang from falling and helping her back to her own two feet, giving her space to settle down as he assumed she might need a minute to adjust.

Yang didn't know what to think, her mind was to scattered to conceive of any idea on what exactly had happened, or was currently going on, all she knew that her Jaune was standing before herself, giving her a moment to collect her thoughts but she couldn't, she could only stare at Jaune, looking at him and making absolutely sure that this Jaune was hers. The answer was found in his eye's, each perfect blue sphere held a look that only he ever had when he looked at her, a look that grew even fonder as they had children and even now, none of what it had been was diminished.

Her thoughts began to come back to her and she found the look, still holding the care it always had but beyond that, there was a deep void, no word could explain what the void was but it's feeling was clear. Yang knew from the look that Jaune cared more for her than anyone could conceive but he had also spent so much time without her, his eyes were agelessly older from the last time she had looked into them, a depth to them that only someone who knew Jaune's history could even begin to notice.

She wanted to say something, anything, to Jaune, but words felt like they could not possibly be enough to respond to his eyes. While her mind was unable to find words to speak her body reacted all on its own as her mind was struck speechless, as well as thoughtless.

A tentative arm reached out and touched one of Jaune's exposed arms, the contact of her fingers against his flesh prompted her to step towards him, sliding her arm behind his back and reaching around with her other to hold Jaune in a tight embrace. It only took a single instant for Jaune's arms to wrap around her and reciprocate the tight, personal embrace.

* * *

Roman was a bit stumped by how exactly he was supposed to complete this robbery and make the failure look impressive enough to get Red some attention from Beacon. Normally his identity would be enough to fast track her into Beacon, or at least that's what he assumed, he really was short on a few details.

Jaune hadn't been exactly full of details when he asked about how this would work when the topic first came up.

His identity was still a major factor and he didn't exactly want to blow that here, he was rather enjoying the ability to walk down a busy street in the middle of the day and not be identified.

While stumped to know if his plan would be good enough he did have one plan.

The Red Axe Gang members with him were all made to change clothes. Gone were their usual suits and glasses, even the weapon they all carried that painted them as part of the gang were left behind, each member wore basic street clothes, simple enough fair that no one would be able to spot them in a crowd.

Their weapons were also fairly standard fare as well, no blades, or firearms, each man held a lead pipe or a short length of chain, more the fair of a run of the mill gang of thugs, which is precisely what Roman wanted them to be, the less they stood out the more likely his appearance would be taken more seriously.

He had similarly dressed himself down as well, but while his hired goons for the night looked like a gang of thugs he had the appearance of a cat burglar.

Decked from head to toe in black clothing, hiding away any distinctive feature, most difficult was his brightly colored hair but with enough patience, he managed that with a tight balaclava.

The plan was simple, so simple that the goons would have no way to mess it up for him.

They would shake down the dust shop, not for Dust but just for protection money or some other threat that would cause enough of a scene to get Red to step in. Each goon was instructed that their job was just a distraction so that he could slip into another business and acquire something else, once they had caused enough of a scene they were told to flee, each man was given a route that they should follow, all essentially leading to exactly where he himself would be exiting from his robbery. Hopefully in as perfect timing as he could manage to make him seem like the more important target for Red.

Then it was a simple process of exchanging a few hit's with the little Huntress making it just flashy enough that the nearby Glynda Goodwitch would appear and after that he would use a carefully placed and conceal Neo and her Semblance to escape, all in all, a fairly simple plan, now it was just a matter of putting it into action.

* * *

Jaune had placed Yang's normal favorite drink in front of her, the Strawberry Sunrise though had gone completely untouched as Jaune had spent the time since their long embrace had ended, and getting her back to an empty table, and getting them both drinks explaining everything about what was going on.

His numerous lifetimes since they had been together, how he could basically force a peaceful world for at least the duration of his lifetime, How he was ripped through countless previous lives by a combination of Salem and the Relics from a previous lifetime, as well as the deal offered to him by the Relics if he could complete their task.

Of course, he didn't go into the finer detail right now, Juniors club was hardly the appropriate place to go into depth on what exactly was happening but he condensed everything as much as he could.

"So..." Jaune tried to prompt a response from Yang after bringing her up to speed on everything that was important. When he finished the two sat in a prolonged awkward silence he felt should have ended already.

"This is all so... weird." Yang finally took her drink and drained it in a single long pull, raising her arm and the glass with it in the air signaling for a refill which came in moments, Jaune having hired one of Junior's servers to cater specifically to his table. "I was dying a moment ago, and then I was watching my life play out before me all over again until I got to this point right here." Yang took her second drink and drained it as quickly as the first, though this time she didn't raise her arm to signal another, simply setting the empty glass before her. "Okay, you have told me everything right? No missing details you skipped over, everything you told me is the complete and honest truth as you know it?"

"Pretty much yeah, I mean, Roman is also back with us and I restored his memories first." Jaune looked away sheepishly, trying to act as casually as he could as he let Yang absorb that small tidbit of information.

To her credit, Yang kept her voice even and calm as she spoke. "You gave Roman back him memories before me?" The hint of threat in the calm tone could not be overstated.

Jaune put his hand up slightly, palms outward in defense, not cowed or intimidated in the slightest at Yang's slight effort at intimidation. He knew when she was simply putting on a face and this was one of those moments. "I have a legitimately good reason for that."

* * *

Roman walked through the closed weapon store with all the confidence of someone who was not only allowed to be here but that belonged here. Breaking in through the back door and disabling the security system had been almost too easy. The system was a couple of iterations old and barely took a minute to disable both the silent and auditory alarms.

Walking through the store he would quickly lockpick any display case that held something that looked interesting, each lock taking a portion of his limited time before his goons were driven away by Red so he didn't have a lot of time to window shop so he kept his attention focused on the large primary displays.

He need to gather a new weapon for himself, Melodic Cudgel having to be left behind because it was an identifier to who he was.

A dust revolver now sat on his hip, the first item he lifted from a cage, along with a belt and holster that appeared to be made specifically for it. The weapon's barrel was far to short for him, and he knew in a fight he would be sorely at a disadvantage but this was only a moderately trains Huntress he would be dealing with, and he would be abandoning the fight with Neo's help the moment Glynda showed up so he would manage.

After arming himself he just began to stuff a random assortment of weapons into the large duffle bag he carried with him, pause every few moments to listen for sounds of fighting. It didn't take long for the noise to appear or for the sounds of his goons losing to signal it was time to appear himself.

Hefting the partially filled back he ran for the back door he entered from and emerged into the alley just as little Red dashed past the exit.

Her eyes took in his appearance in an instant and her eyes widened in surprise and shock for a moment before they spotted the bag he held, a few weapons peeking out at weird angles.

Roman found himself frozen in shock for a moment as little Red's expression darkened as he had never seen in any of his previous lives, cold angry rage emanated from her.

"Don't worry babies, I'll save you."

"Wha-" Was all Roman managed before a heavy combat boot connected with the side of his face, Ruby had rocketed into him so fast that he hadn't managed to get his Aura in place to block the attack correctly.

* * *

"Okay, as far as reasons go that's a pretty good one for giving Roman back his memories first." Yang said walking alongside Jaune as the two had left the club in the midst of Jaune explaining his reason behind giving Roman his memories first.

The night air was refreshingly cool and relaxing after the stuffy, crowded atmosphere that had developed inside the club.

A quiet, comfortable silence was shared between the pair as they walked through the peaceful streets of Vale.

Jaune simply content to walk beside Yang again, where there was the silent knowledge that this was someone who knew everything about him and found a way to accept that knowledge.

Yang was silent for another reason, she was happy to be back, to have another life, but she was still trying to process all the new information, even if it was heavily condensed, for the time being, it was still a great deal to absorb.

Their time together this evening was limited though, at a certain point Yang would be expected back at her lodgings for the night to prepare for Beacon tomorrow, in anticipation of that, the pair had been gradually heading that way from the start.

"So, the Relic's offer, do you think it's possible?"

A frown marred Jaune's otherwise happy expression for a moment as he was forced to once again reflect on how little of a plan he actually had currently. "I honestly don't know, this is a single chance opportunity. There are no second opportunities to fix my mistakes, I have this life and only this life to complete this task." Jaune paused and grabbed Yang's hand, cupping his free hand over their two combined. "I can't say I don't want to try to complete this task, but I also don't want to ruin a sure thing. I can force this life to be long and peaceful, I have already taken the first steps to make sure that will happen but, attempting this, I could start a war that would ruin this world, so If I don't succeed, I take away your chance to have one final long peaceful life."

"I asked you once, years ago for me, lifetimes for you, to be selfish. And you allowed yourself to be selfish for me, even knowing what that would mean better than anyone. You could ask the same of me." Yang gently squeezed Jaune's hand.

"I could, but I won't. I want to try, but I equally don't want to ruin a chance for you to have a complete and full life, so in the end, the decision to do this, or do not, is up to you. That being said though, you don't have to decide right at this moment, or anytime soon either really, we have years before I would even begin to have some form of a plan I might feel super confident in."

* * *

Roman ran for his life, an angry tornado of Red rosepetals furiously following behind him, angrily shouting at him to let go of the babies, a very incorrect and confusing thing to be shouted at, anytime it was shouted by Red if people were nearby he could just imagine the confused looks they were getting, well if anyone they got near wasn't running for their lives in fear of the angry red reaper.

Wasn't he the criminal here?

His choice of theft had apparently struck a deep nerve as he had never seen Red behave like she was right now, apparently she was a weapon nut and to steal a weapon might as well be the worst crime conceivable in her mind.

He had attempted briefly to fight back, not wanting to hurt Red cause her sister would definitely make him pay if he did but it was clear after the first couple of blows that Red was not going to be dissuaded by a couple of gentle taps.

So now he was running, trying to keep to the general vicinity where Neo was hidden for when he needed to make his escape.

The whoosh of air after a crack of gunfire had him abandoning the bag of weapons he had attempted to hang onto throughout this chase, not wanting Red to give up if she considered the weapons safe from his hands, but now they were slowing him down too much and he needed to put some space between himself and Red, the added weight of the bag making the hard corners he needed to navigate inside Vale's alleyways harder than necessary.

Making several hard corners, forcing the much faster Huntress to constantly be forced to slow down lest she slam into a wall, silently thanking whoever was looking out for him that she had yet to master high speed turns yet.

The corners gave him some breathing room but not much as he emerged out into what should have been a relatively busy street but currently was empty of almost all traffic, he understood why when he spotted the person he had been stalling all this time for to show up.

A wide grin, concealed by his mask was all the relief he could show right now as he wheeled to a stop and brought his stolen Dust revolver to bare, firing a couple of shots down the alley he just emerged from.

Red hadn't had time to catch up and turn the last corner to be visible so both shots were fired without fear of accidentally harming Red.

* * *

The walk was coming to an end, it was not that late yet but both Jaune and Yang were expected at Beacon tomorrow and at least in Yang's case had to deal with Taiyang chaperoning the trip into Vale since Ruby had also accompanied them.

Chaperone was used very loosely in these terms, as Tai had left both his daughter to freely wander through Vale on their own while he relaxed back at the hotel he had booked for the trip.

Only a block from the Hotel Jaune stopped on at a quiet corner and pulled Yang to a stop as well.

"Yang, before we go our separate ways tonight I have to say, before things get to busy with teams and whatnot at Beacon, that just being with you for this short time, it... it has been the best thing I have experienced in so-so long."

Yang could see the struggle in Jaune to keep his emotions in check with his softspoken statement, the man that could keep his feelings in check so masterfully that it took her experiences alongside him to begin to even notice these things. She had no words to respond to Jaune's emotion though and instead leaned forward and cupped Jaune's cheek's with her hands, smiling ever so slightly while she did as she placed a short but meaningful kiss on Jaune's lips.

The single moment lasted only an instant but it reciprocated to Jaune, that everything he felt in this night, all the feelings he had about everything he had done and still had to do was somehow worth it for this simple moment. The knowledge that this moment could happen again and again in this singular life allowed his mind a moment to relax and not worry about anything for a sweet peaceful minute.

The kiss ended with a mutual sigh of contentment from both individuals.

"I'll see you tomorrow Jaune." Yang spoke with a light airy voice, her mind intoxicated from all the emotion that went into her simple kiss.

Jaune said nothing as Yang walked away, his jaw slack and eye's befuddled as the aftereffects of the kiss played out all over his body, his skin rippled with electricity, as it soaked in everything that was that singular kiss. Long moments would pass as he finally came to his senses and realized he had been standing dumbstruck in the middle of the street, alone, for several long minutes.

Clearing his throat and straightening the already straight clothing he looked around in every direction for a few quick moments, like he was somehow lost before turning quickly on his heel and marching awkwardly away.

* * *

Neo was doing the equivalent of what would be considered pointing and laughing at him, her mouth split into a wide grin as tears streamed from her eyes as she kept looking at him and then away as she continued silently laughing away.

Silent laughter was the only saving grace he had, not having to listen to it audibly was a mercy, though it didn't make him feel much better, looking at Neo and her body contorting in silence was embarrassing on multiple levels.

With Neo's Semblance, he had managed to make a somewhat dramatic escape, only somewhat because Glynda Goodwitch had seen fit to ruin the epicness of his heroic departure with some Semblance shenanigans.

He had masterfully evaded Goodwitch's barrage of projectiles, showcasing an impressive degree of agility that he was not known for, preferring other means of combat normally.

Ducking around a corner out of sight he latched onto Neo's Semblance and used it to travel to a nearby rooftop instantly, intending to perform a flourishing bow and taunt Red for a moment by displaying that he had kept one of the stolen weapons, well beyond the revolver that Red might have just assumed was his too begin with.

His moment of triumph was undercut though by a loose brick of all things. Appearing on his roof of choice, a nice three story he scouted well in advance for this exact purpose, primarily to high for either Huntress to be able to immediately reach him. At least physically with their own hands.

Glynda Goddamn Goodwitch and her overpowered Semblance though, made the brick he stood on crumble from the building, causing him to fall backward and bang his head hard against a commercial air conditioning unit on the roof of the building, ruining his impressive escape and causing him to have to slink away shamefully with another use of Neo's Semblance.

Neo who had been positioned on said rooftop in advance saw the entire thing and, thank god for her being a mute or Glynda and Red would have had no problem following him all the way back to Juniors club through all the laughter Neo would have been doing the entire way there.

* * *

Back in his hotel room Jaune couldn't help but continue to smile, even after his face began to sting with the constant expression it still sat in place, even if he needed to act, somber or dour right now, even with all his experience, to act as the occasion would dictate he doubted he could manage anything but pure happiness in this moment of time.

His body was filled with energy and he doubted sleep would come easily to him tonight. So in an effort to push that impossible task back for at least a couple of hours, maybe even let the euphoria he was feeling slowly bleed away at the same time he sorted through his equipment one more time.

Making sure Celica Mors and Crocea Mors were both sharpened to perfection.

Crocea Mors was given some extra attention as he took apart and cleaned the dust mechanism that resided inside the sheath.

There was little he could do with his armguard, maintenance on it required several hours to properly disassemble the firing mechanisms and he didn't consider his hotel room a proper environment for all the small components that could be easily lost so he left the armguard alone after giving it a quick polish.

His only other piece of equipment was his breastplate which hung freshly cleaned over the back of one of his chairs, folded underneath were his combat clothes, also freshly cleaned and ready for the next two days.

Everything was ready and waiting for the following day, the only thing that wasn't currently was himself as he still found it impossible to even consider the thought of sleep as he turned his eye's out the window of his room, looking past the darkening horizon as night grew ever deeper and he sighed, waiting for tomorrow to start.

* * *

Taiyang was absent when she returned, no doubt at ht police station already dealing with Ruby's situation.

She didn't expect either of them back tonight if the usual events happened as they should. Ruby would get offered a place in Beacon and would accept, and Taiyang would agree to her decision.

Then the two would hastily take a Bullhead back to Patch to pack Ruby's things, sending her a quick scroll message so she wouldn't worry.

Seemingly thinking about them caused her scroll to flash and a brief look at the message told her that everything had gone right, a pleasant feeling of relief came with that knowledge.

She hadn't been looking forward to a change of pace, while she had all the memories of this life, having been witness to everything that she had done before she had control over her body.

She felt herself, mentally, there was no weird disconnect in her mind that something was wrong or out of place, everything felt so normal and right, a feeling that on it's own would make her paranoid that something was seriously wrong but she could feel all sorts of things that were still out of place.

Running her left hand over right arm, the portion that she had lost in her first life, and had kept in her second. The wound and lack of it after her first life kept her mind sharp, it kept her focused in a way that told her what was happening was real.

In her mind, she felt herself touching the skin on the arm, feeling the muscle underneath as she would clench her fist, or extend her arm before bending it back once again.

She controlled every action, felt every movement as it happened, but her arm still tingled ever so slightly, her mind remembering the lost limb and reminding her in its own way.

She treated this sensation as a signifier that she was herself, not some amalgamation of other Yang's but she was the one and only, that she as a person existed at this moment.

Relief came with the tingle every time it happened.

Lying peacefully on her bed, not attempting to sleep as she just found it relaxing enough to simply experience the sensation of being for sure, herself.

* * *

Thing's were not making sense to Neo.

Since shortly after arriving in Vale Roman had begun to act differently, not enough to really be noticeable from a casual observer but to her, Roman had changed just enough to be noticeably off.

His attitude and demeanor were still intact and he didn't let anyone outside of herself mess with him still. It was little things that changed. She would catch him sitting and staring off into space from time to time, like he was thinking about or reflecting on something, it wasn't frequent, but it was enough to be noticed.

He had also, for the most part, stopped smoking entirely, gone was his near ever-present cigar in his mouth, instead, they were kept in his breast pocket, seemingly forgotten about for days at a time.

She didn't really find the loss of the cigars all that of a bad thing, the awful odor that came with them when he smoked ruined her appreciation of her favorite vice.

Thinking about her Vice, sweets, it was very suspicious of Roman to suddenly know where all kinds of places she would like to eat, especially in a city neither of them had spent all that much time in during their longish criminal careers.

So she had started paying closer attention to Roman, even following him when he thought she was occupied with something else.

It hadn't taken much to discover where Roman was going, he would head to Junior's club, a fairly predictable place for a criminal of any level to spend their evenings.

What was unusual was the company Roman kept when he arrived, choosing to remain in the club proper instead of vanishing into one of the back rooms that would be more in line with the entertainment Roman typically preferred.

Roman would share a table with the same person every time he went to the Club, a well built blonde teenager who appeared supremely confident in his surroundings. The teen would be found at the same table every night, she knew, she checked, and he was never approached by anyone but Roman or one of the Waitress's, she could feel him giving off enough of a presence that anyone who considered approaching him that wasn't welcome would understand that, it was even enough to dissuade the more rowdy or drunken patrons, who usually only steered clear of Juniors spot at the bar.

While the blonde teen's attitude towards others intrigued her in the end that mattered little in comparison to how he and Roman interacted.

She wouldn't consider Roman and the teen friends in any sense of the word, more so they simply had a mutual understanding of some situation that kept them on pleasant terms with each other, though as far as she could tell there was no underlying hostility. So the arrangement that the two shared was mutually beneficial in some way, and possibly for the way the teen seemed to tip generously whenever a drink was brought to him could explain away the seeming windfall of good fortune Roman had happened to have at making easy and legal Lien, enough to set the two of them up for a good many years even if they started to blow it all on stupid things.

She did not like secrets when it came to her relationship with Roman, and neither did Roman. Secrets ruin great partnerships and theirs was one of the best. Roman would include her in everything and she would do so in response, except for this instant.

She considered approaching Roman and forcing the information out of him but decided upon that being her second option. The blonde teen would be first, he was young and even if he was confident, she had broken confident men before.

On one of the many nights, Roman and the teen did not meet she left Roman behind this time to visit the Club herself, intending to lean on the teen a little.

The teen had proven elusive though, she wasn't sure at first but after a couple of nights in a row, she knew for a fact that the teen was avoiding her, and in a way that made it look like he wasn't at the same time.

She never actually managed after multiple nights of unsuccessfully finding a way to corner the teen she had given up that approach and instead tried to find out what she could the criminal way.

She had left a note with Junior, with the customary Lien fee, and a nice tip to show that she wanted answers and she wanted them quickly.

Sadly what she learned from Junior that night was everything that she would learn.

The blonde's name was Jaune Arc, he was set to attend Beacon at the start of the new semester, and he was god damn intimidating when he wanted to be.

The information wasn't much but it did highlight a couple of things.

This Jaune Arc, was scary enough to intimidate Junior and his entire gang into essentially ignoring his presence in their club, and Junior had been very specific in his wording. It was Jaune who intimidated them, not the people he worked for or people he ran with, no, Jaune was the one who intimidated them.

The second piece of information was Jaune was set to attend Beacon.

Now, why would someone so capable want to attend a Huntsman school at all? If he was a criminal he could simply acquire a license in Vacuo for a nominal fee, entirely legit too, Shade academy would make anyone a Huntsmen for enough Lien, so crooked was the academy, much like the kingdom in existed in.

No, a legit license wasn't the goal either, Jaune Arc wanted into Beacon for another reason and needed a credible way to get access and being a student was the simplest way to do so.

Her decision to do what she was about to do was not an easy one to make but it was at least likely to be entertaining. While Roman and Jaune had been meeting from time to time she had been collecting the proper forms, and bringing them to the best forgery experts she could find in Vale, by the time that tonight rolled around she was registered as an accepted applicant into Beacon.

Being a criminal she found out how exactly the Huntsman teams were formed and with that knowledge she intended to attach herself to Jaune, see if he is as intimidating as Junior and his goons seemed to think and maybe, after finding out Jaune and Romans relationship, maybe torture the teen for a while, that seemed fair considering her time spent on this.

Laying down on her comfortable bed she found sleep instantly, her mind totally at ease with the world.

* * *

Sun Wukong stepped off the late night Bullhead, and groaned in agony slightly, stiff muscles due to the long flight from Mistral causing untold aches and pains.

He didn't have any time to relax for a moment as before him appeared easily one of the strictest looking women he had ever laid eyes upon, so commanding was her presence that it took him a moment to notice that another figure actually stood in front of her, his presence much less domineering.

These were the two people in charge of the best Huntsman academy in all of Remnant, the academy every Huntsman applies to seemingly on the off chance they might get accepted. He hadn't, it was kind of to be expected he had guessed, Vacuo students weren't usually considered at other academies, normally ending up having to complete there training at Shade. He had actually been one of the lucky few who got accepted outside of Vacuo, Mistral had extended an invitation to him and he had accepted.

That was until a week ago when he was asked to attend Beacon seemingly out of the blue. He didn't get much of an explanation as to why the sudden offer but what he had figured out was a couple of potential applicants had to withdraw which opened up some places in Beacons initiation, his name had come up as a suitable replacement and like any aspiring Huntsman he jumped at the opportunity to come to Beacon, he had already left all his friends behind in Vacuo and he hadn't really had time to make any new ones in Mistral so the offer had been easy to accept.

* * *

 **I bet this is gonna annoy Jaune.**

 **So I hope this chapter appeases everyone who was a little miffed at me for only giving the reunited pair a single line each last chapter. To be fair I did that for me to see how many angry or annoyed messages I might get, the number was decently high.**

 **Alright, not much I'm gonna add here this time, I would rather you guys have fun with speculating on what's going on or gonna happen so I'll leave this at this for now.**

 **As always lemme know what you think, even if it just to tell me that I suck!**


	52. Chapter 52

**Beacon faculty room, several hours before applicants arrive at Beacon.**

* * *

Ruby Rose had been the perfect addition to his plans.

The young girl was the epitome of what he looked for in Huntsmen, and to top that off she had a rare trait many who shared her ideals did not, Silver Eyes. She was not the first Huntsman that he had come across to have such a trait, in fact, her mother had them as well, unfortunately for Summer Rose she never unlocked the power of the trait, nor had he pushed her to try as he might have a few centuries earlier.

Silver Eyed Huntsmen were hunted by Salem. Once their identity was discovered she would invest considerable resources to make sure anyone who had Silver Eyes was dealt with.

Salem couldn't simply hunt silver eyed people though, they were surprisingly common all things considered. History and fairy tales inflated the story about silver eyed people being great warriors through the ages, a pleasant concept but in reality many simply lived regular lives, entirely unaware of the power that might be theirs.

So Salem would only hunt Huntsmen with Silver eyes and only after they are shown to be capable of wielding the power on command, as many Huntsmen might unlock the power by accident in a stressful moment but ultimately never end up being able to repeat the effect, and Salem had become frighteningly adept at dealing with Silver eyes.

Now though it might just be the right time to see what could be accomplished by a Huntsman that was trained by some of the best Remnant had to offer as well as the support of a potentially powerful team.

Ozpin flicked through his screens with interest as he slid the final spot available on the team he had been striving to build into place.

Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos, Sun Wukong, and Ruby Rose a team that at first glance seemed frighteningly oddly structured, even he had to admit, with the options available to him it was not the perfect team in terms of power or speed, but it was versatile, and each member brought something different to the group as a whole.

Now it was just how exactly to make sure this team forms. He had already painstakingly designated every Huntsmans Jump pad for the forest trail, making sure there would be no way that Jaune and Pyrrha would not end up as partners.

Rubbing the bridge of his nose he looked away from his tablet for a moment and looked over to Glynda who was currently engrossed in her own tablet, much like all the teachers and instructors that occupied the room, each going over the last minute details of initiation and their role to play.

For most it was simply where they would be positioned in the Emerald forest to protect any of their applicants if their lives became at risk, it was something that was rarely needed but a safety net had to be put in place.

He turned his attention back to his own tablet after the momentary distraction of allowing his eyes to rest for a moment and continued to pull different student files together, simulating potential teams but constantly coming back to the Arc team. It was too late to make any radical adjustments to initiation and after a few moments longer of trying to think of a way to form his ideal team he gave up, intent on spending the last few hours before the Bullheads arrived carrying his newest batch of students quietly relaxing in his office, enjoying a hot coffee or two.

* * *

Jaune sat in his usual spot on the large transport Bullhead that Beacon used to ferry the large mass of students from Vale to Beacon. Remaining seated alone he watched from afar as Yang and Ruby had their usual discussion aboard the Bullhead, Yang attempting to make Ruby relax and Ruby in turn seemingly becoming more anxious the closer they came to Beacon, this of course would all culminate in Yang abandoning her sister as soon as the Bullheads doors opened, leaving for Ruby to encounter Weiss and begin that whole sequence of events.

It was a simple series of events he had no part to play in to make the event happen more easily or fluidly so he just let it play out as it always had and he trusted Yang to not jeopardize the situation either.

All in all, today was going to be an easy day for him, he could just sit back and relax a little, aside from coming to Ruby's rescue after she blows herself and Weiss up there really wasn't much to do.

Or at least that should have been the case.

Neopolitan sat beside him, dressed the same as she always did, hair still every bit as multicolored as it was known to be, it was annoying how little she was even trying to blend in.

He wanted to be mad that Neo was here, even cross, or maybe annoyed but he basically expected this outcome from the moment he noticed Neo watching him and Roman insider Juniors several times, especially after he had also gone out of his way to avoid her in the few occasions she had chosen to try and approach him. So no, he couldn't be annoyed at Neo since this outcome could be traced back to him quite easily with only a little thought.

The question was what was he going to do with her though, Yang had noticed her presence and had sent him a single raised eyebrow at her appearance but she couldn't exactly make a mention of her presence either without having some questions raised about herself either.

So here he sat, his expression bemused at Neo's appearance, much to Neo's apparent annoyance as she likely expected Jaune to be annoyed or caught off guard by her presence, or at least that's how he read her expression, it was much less cocky than her usual expression.

He would find a way to deal with her later, not that it really took much to deal with her, in the lives she would attend Beacon through weird jumps in logic on her part she quickly became bored with the entire thing once the novelty wore off. So right now it all he had to do was ignore her and in time she would go away on her own, or this would be one of those lives where she would be stubborn for the sake of spiting him, in that case, well whatever team she ends up on will have a pretty easy passing grade on their team combat score, well at least they would once they were able to keep up with Neo.

A slight adjustment in the engine noise of the Bullhead was the queue he needed to stand up and collect his bag, slinging his modified backpack over his shoulder with ease considering the weight of it. The backpack was a recent addition to his collection of custom equipment made by ' _Semblance Stitches'_ the bag wrapped around Crocea Mors, making the blade still accessible while wearing the backpack if necessary, it also as always made the backpack extremely durable, a problem he had had with other bags being constantly replaced as they would not last long with the weight he would subject them too.

The ride from Vale to Beacon wasn't long enough to get any form of actual joint stiffness from the trip but he stretched nonetheless, more a force of habit from constantly repeating the action across untold lifetimes.

Neo didn't let him go far though and made to stand next to him.

"You know Neo, Roman might think something is going on if you keep too near me." Jaune teased, not actually bothering to look at Neo, instead, he sidestepped the handle of Neo's weapon as she sought to drive it into his hip at the insinuation.

The missed blow from Neo had her stumble slightly and draw the attention of several of the other applicants on the Bullhead, enough that she would not try and repeat the attack.

Reaching out his arms he braced to catch Neo as his leg shifted forward just a hair to make her slight tumble devolve into a full-fledged fall. "Careful now, you should remain seated if you're not used to standing on a Bullhead, it can be a little tricky to master." With all the grace of a professional actor, Jaune turned the act of simply catching the very Neo he goaded into attacking him then tripping, into the perfect slide of helping her back into her seat before she noticed what was transpiring or could prevent it. In the same motion, he slipped through the crowd of applicants who had already lost interest in the incident, leaving Neo confused and alone to figure out what exactly had just happened as he prepared to save Ruby from Weiss.

* * *

 **Ozpin's office, shortly after giving his welcoming speech.**

* * *

He could not believe his luck, Jaune had met Ruby in the few spare minutes between departing the Bullhead and his opening speech and had apparently become friends in such a short amount of time. That alone validated the hours of extra work necessary for such a last minute addition of Ruby Rose to this year's applicants.

Making a reminder in his Scroll to personally thank and reward Glynda again for helping him fast track her paperwork so that she could be fully qualified to be here today.

Though for every good thing that happened more often than not something opposite would occur. He couldn't be certain but Jaune appeared to be being followed by another applicant that seemed very focused on where he was at all times. It only took a moment to find her file and peruse through it. The young woman who followed Jaune only had a single name, Neopolitan, an interesting name but he was hardly one to judge he supposed as he looked through her file wondering who exactly this woman was in more detail.

She was a foreign applicant from Mistral, having passed their entrance tests with flying colors if the file was to be believed, seemingly a very capable fighter despite her diminutive size and almost childlike appearance. Neopolitan could likely easily pass for much younger than she was if she dressed differently, though he guessed the reason she dressed the way she did now was to attempt to at least appear her actual age, maybe even older, it wasn't uncommon for aspiring Huntsmen to lie about their age to try and attend the academies earlier than they legally should, not that it mattered to terribly much, Ms. Rose was a good example of talent, or he supposed personal interest on his part, before age in some cases.

The file showed everything was in order and he could only hypothesize on why exactly this Neopolitan sought fit to follow after Jaune. As a precaution he took a look at where he had placed this new addition to his plans on the jump pads for tomorrows Emerald Forest test, finding that by some chance he had placed her quite close to Jaune.

Remembering back to the speech he had just given he remembered almost in passing that Jaune had not only become friends with Ms. Rose he had also gotten along quite well with the young girls older sister. Yang had been positioned a decent distance away from Jaune in his carefully organized chart of jump pads but with a simple couple of taps, he switched Neopolitans and Ms. Xaio Long's places.

Ms. Nikos hadn't managed to spot Jaune from where she stood in the crowd, an unfortunate circumstance but not something to really worry over, they had what remained of the afternoon and the entire evening for her to find Jaune in the auditorium, he was supremely confident that the shy girl would gravitate towards Jaune after their brief pairing a few months prior, and if she felt awkward aapproachingJaune if he was surrounded by Yang and Ruby then he was confident Jaune would make whatever choice his Semblance suggested he do, he could not force his will upon this gathering as much as he might desire to do so.

* * *

 **Beacon Auditorium.**

* * *

"Here, this is a good spot." Jaune said as he led Ruby and by extension Yang who was content to follow along happily to a rather sparsely occupied portion or the large Auditorium. Everyone else who entered at the same time as they did was more keen on chatting with their fellows that they lost the initiative to Jaune and his small group on claiming one of the best spots to bed down for the evening. Jaune's spot was neither too close to the bathrooms, or the tables filled with snacks and refreshments, the healthy boring fair that would be overlooked at first but would be largely left untouched once people got around to sampling what was provided. Huntsmen weren't allowed the luxury of being picky and if you were unprepared you ate what was available, simple as that, but there were some times that a hungry, empty stomach was still the preferable choice.

"Are you sure? wouldn't it be smarter to be closer to the snack tables or the bathrooms?" Ruby looked around anxiously as she noticed that theirs was the only group that seemed to be picking a spot so early and thinking that being near one of the two places would be a better plan.

"Nah sis, your new friend has the right idea." Yang nodded toward Jaune as he worked with his back turned away from them. "This spot is equal walking distance from both places and also just far enough out of the way to not be directly between the two points either, which means less traffic going past us, so less noise to have to deal with when we go to sleep."

Ruby turned to look at both the table laden with snacks and the bathrooms and understood now the importance of this location, making a mental note to remember this information, she was already learning new skills, even if it was a simple lesson on picking your camping spot, and Beacon hadn't even started yet. Though as she filed away that information her eyes turned to Jaune as he pulled more and more gear out of his oddly designed backpack, well oddly designed if she hadn't seen him wearing his weapons and understood the odd shape.

"Uh Jaune, excuse me, but what exactly are you doing?" Ruby eyed the space Jaune had claimed for them and was confused as to what Jaune was exactly planning, collapsible tripod poles stood in a pattern around their site.

"Shush sis," Yang elbowed Ruby gently, interrupting her sister and allowing Jaune to continue working without interruption. "He's prepared I'll give him that." Yang watched in interest a Jaune rapidly pieced together a largish tent, his backpack continuing to produce more and more building materials until the makeshift tent stood a near perfect ten feet by ten feet, and even had a high enough ceiling and a roof that anyone among the applicants would be able to stand fully upright inside.

"Alright." Jaune stood back and wiped the sweat from his brow, not that setting up the tent was actually enough to cause him to sweat it was simply a motion he would do when the situation called for it. "Thanks for the help, by the way, I always work better when I have a captive audience." Jaune smiled over his shoulder at Yang and Ruby, Yang more because of her look of rapt approval, Ruby still looked at him more confused than anything, but his comment combined with Yang's look did bring a little red to Ruby's face as she felt embarrassed and wasn't sure exactly why.

"Are you sure you're allowed to do this Jaune?" Ruby asked, a little worried, expecting a teacher to appear at any moment to demand he dismantle the structure immediately.

"I mean, I'm pretty sure, I think either of those teachers over there would have told me to stop if I wasn't allowed too." Jaune waved over toward where Professors Port and Oobleck both stood watching over the crowd of students at the other end of the auditorium. Port actually being loud enough to be heard even from this distance to be noticeably praising Jaunes ingenuity.

"Well, I guess." Ruby was still worried, she couldn't help not be but she did relax. "Why do you need such a big space just for yourself though?"

"Gee, Rubes, this entire space isn't obviously only for him," Yang said with relaxed if an exaggerated stretch. "He obviously built this to share with you, so that the two of you would have a little privacy tonight." Yang punctuated this with an eyebrow wag.

"YAAANNNNGGGGGG," Ruby whined and slapped at her sister for the insinuation.

Jaune rolled his eyes at the antics of Yang, knowing that even without her memories restored to her she would likely have made the same insinuation regardless. "No, that isn't why I assembled this, well at least not the second part, well maybe a little bit the second part but not the way Yang worded it," Jaune said first with all the confidence in the world until he reached the second part and kinda mumbled his way through the end, earning a wide-mouthed grin from Yang and a look of apprehension from Ruby. "You're making me look like a pervert, clear this up, or not, I have more unpacking to do." Jaune threw his hands up in the air and walked into his tent, away from the sister's as well as the multitude of eyes that had started to turn their direction, his structure and the scene happening out front earning peoples attention.

Yang grinned in Jaune's direction for a moment, "Oh I like him sis, good job landing the muscular blonde knockout in the first day, makes me a little jealous though."

"Jaune's not like that," Ruby glanced at the tent, which she was still stood right outside of. "at least I don't think he is, you're just putting weird words in his mouth and thoughts in my head," Ruby grumbled as she sent the still grinning Yang an annoyed glance.

"Yeah, you're right, I am."

"Wwwhhhyyyyy?"

"To break the ice, and to see just what your new friend's limits are. Gotta know the boundaries so that I can push and prod them." Yang dropped her bag at Ruby's feet. "Now tuck that somewhere in a corner of Jaune's tent, I'm going to go mingle, you two have fun." Yang said with a spirited push on Ruby's back, sending her into the forward facing wall of Jaune's tent completely tearing down the wall much to the appreciation of every aspiring Huntress in the room, everyone who had been looking their direction was treated to an eyeful of a shirtless Jaune Arc, a few whistles of appreciation sounded from the crowd.

"What, oh come on." Jaune looked at the torn down wall with a look of apathy. "Come of Ruby, let's get you out of there." Jaune dug through the ruined wall and helped the thrashing Ruby Rose extract herself from the remains of his wall. His eye's scanning the crowd looking for where Yang had departed to only to spot her somewhere near the far edge of the crowd, looking at him with an impish grin. Rubbing the bridge of his nose, he sighed and didn't know what to expect, even after being married and having a set of kids Yang still acted like this all the time.

"I'm sorry about the wall Jaune." Ruby said, genuinely upset at ruining Jaune's work and preparation.

"Don't apologize, I know it wasn't your fault, considering how far away your sister is, plus the grin you can see even from across the room, I bet she had more to do with this than you did." Jaune gestured toward Yang with a jerk of his thumb, drawing Ruby's attention to where her sister stood still wearing her impish grin. "So don't worry about it, make yourself comfortable if your sister didn't scare you off from me, I'm going to see if I can fix this wall." As Jaune spoke he picked up one of his tripods and noticed it was bent and unfixable. "Or not, eh whatever." Tossing the bent tripod to where his belongings were stacked he repaired the wall the best he could, opting to leave the entire front open and using what he could to make a small room toward the back of his tent into its own separate room, not large enough to sleep in but it would function quite well as a changing room.

Stepping back from his project he nodded once satisfied with a job well done. Feeling a presence he turned slightly and looked down and then rolled his eye's. "Take a spot if you want Neo." He knew whether he offered her a spot or not she would take one so at least this way it kept her from being obnoxious as only Neo could be, plus this wasn't a fight worth engaging in, he would distract her when he needed to, such as earlier today when he needed to save Ruby after her meeting with Weiss, otherwise Neo would simply be treated as an accepted annoyance, kind of like a bratty younger sibling your parents forced you to take everywhere, Jaune grinned at that thought, and wondered how Neo might react if she understood what she was to him currently, likely at best an unkind jab with her parasol, at worst an unkind jab with the pointy end of the same parasol.

"Hey Ruby, meet Neopolitan, no last name." Jaune motioned to Neo as she entered the tent enclosure and placed her belongings right beside Jaune's. "Neo this is Ruby Rose, uh, Rose is the last name," Jaune said lamely, earning an appreciative giggle of laughter from Ruby and a sarcastic eye roll from Neo, which she hid well enough that Ruby didn't notice and surprisingly sent a smile that could almost be considered charming and sincere toward Ruby. "Don't be offended if Neo's not a super great conversationalist Ruby."

* * *

Yang was enjoying wandering through the crowd, looking for familiar faces as well as taking in all the people who would not be here the same time tomorrow.

In her first life, she had spent much of her time in on this day hanging out with her friends and only meeting up with Ruby shortly before people began to turn in for the evening.

Her second life was even less productive than her first on actually mingling with new people as she had gone looking for Blake, only to freeze up in terror once she had found her teammate.

Now though, is the epitome of third times the charm as she wandered through the crowd, eavesdropping on the occasional conversation but not really sticking to one place too long to get invested in anything.

Sifting through the crowd didn't get dull as every new group she passed was engaged in something or other.

A large crowd of boys was passing time by trying to show off for a variety of reasons, mostly hormones and a desire to get the same sort of reaction that Jaune's shirtless torso had received. Sadly the activity had an almost violently opposite reaction as the only people watching the wrestling matches were other male teenagers. She gave that group a wide berth lest her errant glances were misconstrued as interest and earned herself a host of horny boys following her.

She came across Ren and Nora tucked away against one of the wall's, Ren carefully arranging their belongings as Nora circled around him excitedly, asking a thousand and one questions, none of which she ever received any answer too, not expecting any either, answering many of them herself with wild assumptions or crazy conspiracies.

Yang smiled at the pair, Nora missing the gesture completely but Ren caught the smile and inclined his head slightly acknowledging her smile.

Next, she came across Team CRDL, or the soon to be formed Team anyways, the four having claimed what they likely thought was a choice location right next to the table covered in snacks, each boy having already appropriated several handfuls and crammed them into their bags. At that Yang just rolled her eyes, the tables full of snacks would still be very much full when morning rolled around, the snack's provided were essentially iron rations as many older Huntsmen would call them. They were some of the worst things imaginable to eat. Each bar was quite filling and packed with all the essential nutrients needed to keep a body going but god did they taste awful.

Yang simply shrugged and moved on once Cardin looked her way by happenstance and sent her what might pass for a charming smile, her complete apathy to Cardin caused him to mumble some sort of insult her direction which she didn't even bother to turn around to acknowledge.

Eventually she came across her friends from Signal and spent a few hours talking with them, knowing this will be the last opportunity to see many of them until at least the end of her first year in Beacon, and even then many of them will have moved on with their lives elsewhere after failing to get into Beacon.

As the long afternoon wore on to early evening Yang left her friends behind and started picking her way through the now cramped auditorium, now that people had set about crafting their own separate campsites inside the room it became much harder to navigate. She could see her destination, Jaunes tent stood on the opposite side of the large room from her but it took considerable time to weave a path through and had to keep backing up and circling around to not end up brazenly walking through other groups setups and potentially causing a mess.

As she was picking her way back across the room she found a few more recognizable faces along the way.

Pyrrha sat off by herself, her reputation for those who recognized her at least, kept anyone from approaching her and for the slim population of the room who didn't recognize her they weren't willing to approach anyone they didn't know.

It wasn't hard to determine where Pyrrha wanted to be though, her near unblinking gaze at Jaune's tent told a lot.

Jaune had told her that he had by accident run across Pyrrha earlier in this life by chance, and it was clear not only that he had but he had once again apparently made a very strong impression on the redhead.

Stopping in her trek to pick a path through the hall Yang detoured herself over to where Pyrrha sat alone, figuring she could help out a friend, and potential rival.

"Pyrrha Nikos." Yang said extending her hand to the seated Redhead.

"Ah, yes, greetings." Pyrrha extended her hand, years of meet and greets had conditioned her to accept the greeting instantly. "And you are?"

"Your new best friend. Come on pack up your things your moving in with me and my sis." Yang jerked her thumb toward's Jaune's tent, which with its open facing front wall clearly showed which girl inside the tent she was indicating.

"I'm sorry what?" Pyrrha released Yang's hand and stepped back defensively.

"Maybe a little forceful." Yang smiled and placed her hands on her hips before shrugging.

Pyrrha said nothing but gave Yang a concerned look, and relaxed slightly, realizing that Yang wasn't going to try and drag her off somewhere else against her will.

"Sorry about that, just got a little excited when I spotted you. My sister's a huge fan of yours and a little bit awkward if you know what I mean." Yang was fairly certain Pyrrha did simply though her constant surveillance of Jaune's tent, no doubt catching sight of Ruby repeatedly being awkward at every inconvenient opportunity. "So, lemme rephrase my earlier, uh, ultimatum? Yeah probably sounded like one." Yang scratched her cheek slightly in embarrassment. "Hey Pyrrha, I'm Yang Xiao Long, I noticed you're by yourself and if you would like you could join me and my sister, she's a huge fan of yours by the way, in our friend Jaune's tent." With the rephrasing of the ultimatum threat offer Yang gave a sincere grin and waited for a response.

Pyrrha's response was to simply give her the most alien look imaginable, no doubt trying to decipher what exactly was happening currently.

"Come on, it will be fun, my sister and I are good company, and Jaune's pretty cool too, I mean I guess, I have only known him for a couple of hours but he and my socially awkward sister hit it off immediately," Yang added after a moment of awkward silence had passed with Pyrrha not responding. Yang was concerned her direct approach might have just caused one of those ripples Jaune had spent warning her about in her last life alongside him.

Pyrrha's ever so silent laugh caught Yang off guard as the Redheaded Champion began to laugh toward herself.

"Alright, I accept your weirdly aggressive offer."

"Great, come on, it's gonna take a while to get across the room, with the maze of campsites," Yang said as Pyrrha gathered up her belongings before the two set off through the maze of campsites together.

There was no real conversation between the pair as they moved and for that she was thankful for, she didn't exactly know why she went out of her way to invite Pyrrha over to Jaune's tent, this wasn't like her last life where she had a clear stake in Jaune due to years of time spent together before Beacon, and while she was positive Jaune would choose her over Pyrrha or anyone else she found the possessive need to claim Jaune like she had last time wasn't there.

She still very much felt the heat of desire and interest for Jaune but there was something else there now as well. She shook her head dispelling the currently inappropriate thoughts and focused on weaving a path through the room.

As they neared Jaune's tent Yang noticed for the first time that Neo had moved in as well apparently, the diminutive mute having holed herself up at the rear of the tent, seemingly bored with everything else and idling her time away flipping through her scroll.

Not only was Neo inside the Tent but somehow Weiss as well, looking a little flushed and awkward as she seemed like she wanted to leave but through some circumstance or other was committed to staying, regardless of her desire to leave.

Yang simply assumed that was Jaune's work in some capacity decided to not make any mention of it, but it was amusing as Weiss did look like a deer caught in the headlights, body tensed to flee but too afraid or scared to be able to do so, the expression was fairly cute all things considered.

* * *

Weiss was having a day of embarrassments, not even minor ones that she could simply raise her head proudly and walk away from with her dignity intact.

First was her unfortunate meeting with the airheaded dolt after departing from the Bullhead at Beacon, an awful but thankfully shortlived encounter that she could walk away from feeling her usual self, knowing she was in the right for believing someone so young and careless should not have been accepted into Beacon.

Her second embarrassment was less noteworthy, she had only noticed after the speech by Headmaster Ozpin that she seemingly had far more luggage than anyone else, only discovering that the most anyone else brought seemed to be enough of what they deemed as the essentials to last them a week or so, no point in hauling around everything they thought they would need for the next four years if they weren't guaranteed a spot at Beacon. So while she hauled around her heavy suitcases everyone else sent her bemused looks as they carried the much lighter rucksacks or backpacks.

Having arrived late to the hall the other applicants occupied, slowed down due to her luggage situation, she missed the whole construction of this tent, a tent that she mistakenly assumed was some form of sleeping arrangement arranged for her in advance by one of her fathers aides, not that her father would care to do something like this himself.

Entering the tent she had immediately dropped her belongings and taken a seat on a conveniently placed chair, nothing exactly posh or overly comfortable but it had allowed her to get off her feet for a moment and relax.

Then she had met Jaune.

He was handsome, charming, kind, and sincere which put him leagues ahead in terms of what she had to deal with back home in Atlas, where there were far too many boys or men who lacked any trait outside of handsome.

There was a bit of confusion at first when they had met, she thought he was a staff member meant to cater to her for the day, it was only after she had started to notice her surroundings that she realized the error she had made.

This tent was not set up for her, it was something Jaune had constructed, showing he had great foresight, which was another admirable trait to add to the list.

Of course she had then apologized, embarrassment aside etiquette demanded she do so, and she had tried unsuccessfully to get Jaune to listen to her apology but he could not have seemed less interested in hearing any sort of apology, waving of the entire incident as an honest mistake, even inviting her to stay in the tent, both for some measure of privacy as well as truthfully pointing out that with her luggage there were limited spaces in the hall that could accommodate her at that point.

She had instantly and gratefully accepted his offer, even after mentioning that a few other people would be sharing the tent also, it hadn't mattered to her at the moment. She had found comfortable-ish accommodations and Jaune appeared to be a perfect gentleman as well.

That was until the airhead returned.

Through some stroke of luck and timing, She had missed that detail, as the airhead or Ruby Rose apparently was also a guest in the tent.

She wanted to leave to not have to deal with this entire situation but in the short time she had spent in the tent before Ruby returned from wherever she had been the last few remaining spots in the room she might have found space for all her luggage had been claimed, she was trapped here now and strived to simply ignore the pest as best she could, hoping that Ruby would get the hint and avoid her as well, the diminutive multicolored girl in the back of the tent seemed to have no problem getting everyone else to avoid her.

Then Jaune and Ruby began to talk, first about nothing really, some inane prattle about weapons or some such thing, hardly a conversation worth listening to she had thought but that proved wrong as Ruby began to explain intricacies about Huntsmen weaponry that she had never even though to consider.

The longer they talked the more obvious it became that while Ruby was young, she was quite intelligent in certain fields of expertise, maybe considering her an airhead had been a little presumptuous but she had caused a raw dust crystal to explode, something that roughly ninety percent of Huntsmen wouldn't ever actually see or deal with, only handling stable dust, well after the proper manufacturing and testing had occurred to make sure it was in a safe state to handle by even the most careless child.

Still, what Ruby and Jaune talked about hardly made Ruby anything truly special, she knew just as much about Dust at fifteen that Ruby knows about weapons at the same age.

And then came the kicker, the answer to one of Jaune's simple offhand questions as for how a fifteen-year-old got accepted into Beacon.

Ruby Rose, the girl that she had called an airhead, which she probably didn't deserve, and too young to be here had been invited to Beacon, by Headmaster Ozpin, personally.

Weiss wanted to crawl under a rock and hide, a rare occurrence for anyone belonging to the Schnee household but it did happen from time to time, like for example when you verbally berate and put down someone who is attending the same school as you that you only find out later was invited to attend by one of the only people on Remnant with as much power and clout as her own father, even if he rarely used said things.

Weiss wanted to hide in shame.

* * *

Jaune smiled as he showed Ruby how to use a flameless heater properly. Ruby catching on to the little disposable devices rather quickly, she always did in every life, the desire to learn how to use the item was a direct result of hunger and the only food being present were the awful iron rations Beacon had provided them.

The same iron rations that he would send her to check out under false pretenses when he would spot Weiss eventually entering the room, knowing from experience if Weiss and Ruby were present it would lead an argument and Weiss relocating elsewhere. Which ultimately would have zero impact in the grand scheme of things but it was just easier this way to get Weiss stuck in some form of etiquette dilemma and then have her overhear a choreographed conversation between Ruby and Himself.

By the end of it, Weiss would look at Ruby in a different light and many of their issues over their first few days and weeks of lessons would actually not occur at all, so investing himself in a little proactive work saved on headaches for his friends in the coming days.

Once he was certain he could leave Ruby unattended for a moment he stood and stretched his legs, having been relegated to crouching or kneeling on the hard floor, Ruby and Weiss occupying the only practical seats inside his tent and neither realizing that they had left him without anywhere to sit, not that it mattered much to him.

As he stood and looked through the large opening in the front of the tent he spotted Yang with Pyrrha in tow behind her. He didn't show it but inwardly he frowned slightly, not liking the potential outcome of Pyrrha and Weiss meeting before the following morning, his time spent with Pyrrha already in this life made for a variable he hadn't accounted for, but at least handled effectively, he couldn't trust an earlier Weiss and Pyrrha meeting to not-not have consequences that he could not control.

Not that he had much say in the matter currently, Yang was bringing her along and he needed a distraction, his eyes fell on Ruby and knew that he could count on her in this moment of Jeopardy, Pyrrha's weapons were a rare example of a three-part Mechashift combination, Ruby could be engrossed in that for hours, fangirling over Pyrrha's weapon more than she would over the woman who wielded it, something that Pyrrha would no doubt appreciate.

It would still take a matter of time for Yang and Pyrrha to make it through the rats nest the auditorium had devolved into and for the first time in a great while he appreciated the rampant disorder as it allowed him a reprieve to decide how to handle this new situation, as well as wonder where on Remnant was Blake.

He had seen her today, she had a part to play in the whole Ruby and Weiss encounter fresh off the Bullhead so he knew she was here, somewhere, but she was not in her usual quiet corner just outside his tent.

Now he could say with a strong deal of certainty that Blake always chose the same spot, the corner behind his tent was a perfect secluded nook where she could read for hours without interruption, at least until he coaxed her attention with a little bit of prepared cooking. It did little in the grand scheme of things but it got her to interact with her future teammates at least for a few moments before everyone went off to sleep.

There had been lives when this didn't happen and everything still turned out fine but it did bother him that Blake seemingly had found another spot during this life of all lives and he knew, someway, somehow, Ozpin was responsible for this on some level.

* * *

"Look, big guy, I have a little extra I could share with you and your friends, if you could ask nicely." Sun, said, not quite as cocky as the first time he had said a similar answer to the large, brutish looking human, wearing more armor than necessary for a Huntsman, meaning he either had a weak total Aura or bad Aura control, either way, it had given himself a measure of confidence that he could probably handle this one obstruction from returning to his nameless raven-haired maiden with something more palatable than the rations laid out of the tables.

Being confronted by a singular opponent and being cocky was one thing, especially when visual evidence showed you to probably be the better if it came to a fight, but four on one was suicidal to act cocky. If all four of these people had been enough to be accepted to take part in the Beacon initiation trail then provoking a fight would be a very bad idea.

"No, your gonna hand over everything, like a good little monkey."

Sun could hear the sneer and contempt in the group spokesman's voice and shrugged it off with a casual apathy of someone who was used to listening to the more bog standard insults people hurled at Faunus, usually picking there animal trait and adding a generic, vaguely insulting inflection on the word, and thinking that was enough to get a reaction.

Sun stood his ground but was unsure what exactly he should do, the other applicants nearby seemingly wanted no part of what was happening and due to the sake of privacy, many people sought, the teachers who watched over the room couldn't see what was happening. He considered making a break for it, but he had been lucky to slip out of the auditorium once and get back inside with something edible, he doubted he could repeat his success with four very loud looking people chasing after him, he also didn't want to return to his nameless beauty empty handed or in tow with a quartet of racists either.

"Come on fella's, cut me a little slack, here there is more of you than me so I'll give you more than half, that sounds fair right?"

"I don't think your quiet getting the hint, _MONKEY,_ but you're going to give us everything and be thankful to do so!"

Sun scanned through the faces opposing him at that moment and knew his odd's we low to come out of this situation on top, and while he enjoyed a good chance to show off when he could, he also understood that pushing forward with his current odds was dumb, but, he also wasn't one to back down.

* * *

Jaune had spent a few minutes saying his hello's to the newly arrived Pyrrha before distracting her with Ruby who would fawn over her weapon, and to keep Weiss from latching onto the redhead overeagerly. After a few minutes, he had excused himself with ease, slipping off towards the bathrooms before sending Yang a sidelong glance.

She had caught his look but whether or not understood the intent behind it he could not know as he began to move through the room, looking for Blake, his curiosity on her absence from her usual spot nagging at him to go and discover where she was. He had made no changes directly related to her Beacon attendance, making sure to avoid any instance he might accidentally cross her path as she was constantly the most suspicious of anything weird happening.

The usual reason she ended up elsewhere in the large room was usually Cardin related, the oaf figuring out, somehow, Blake's heritage and choosing to be a pest. Blake would always manage to deal with Cardin and his team but it would result in her spending her night elsewhere and in meetings with the professors, having her explain her actions, and it would be her word against the four members of what would become Team CRDL.

It would have a little impact tonight but it would unite the team of four to prevent her from completing the forest trail and making it into Beacon, something that they have had success with in the past.

The Emerald Forest was a big place and while he had knowledge of where roughly everyone would be at certain important points to him, he never did discover when exactly that ambush would happen, so now he would just work to prevent the situation from arising.

He couldn't simply sprint around the hall shouting a name, that would look insane and luckily he knew the first place to look, Team CRDL. Coming across their abandoned campsite, all their gear left behind, even their weapons made him feel a bit relieved but still, four huntsmen level fighters with only fists was still a problem.

Jaune froze as his ears picked up a familiar voice, Cardin, nearby, using a strange noun.

* * *

Sun used his tail to stealthily take the top off one of the pudding cups he had liberated from Beacons cafeteria. While he manipulated his tail in the difficult task he made a show about getting ready to hand over his pilfered goods.

His show of doing so frustrated the largest member of the group and the spokesperson so in an annoyed snort he reached forward, seeking to simply take what he wanted.

The lunge of frustration was what Sun had been waiting for and in a quick action he ducked his head to the side and jammed the open pudding container right into the large teens face, or that should have been the outcome.

* * *

"Mhmm, mhmm, mhmm. That's tasty, way better than the stuff on the table's" Jaune said out loud as he held the pudding cup that until a moment ago had been hidden behind Sun's back ready to strike. When Sun did strike all he did was swat Cardin in the eyes with his tail, stunning and confusing him for a moment. The action wasn't much of a deterrent but Jaune knew his own appearance and calm demeanor would cause a shift in the encounter. "Hey, uh..." Jaune pointed with the pudding cup toward Sun, prompting him to give his name."

"Sun."

"Huh, didn't think I was old enough to have one of them. Okay, Son, what's the problem here that you were about to waste this." Jaune smiled as he scooped out a finger full of the pudding with his pinky, making the simple action look arduously obnoxious, making sure he had all of Team CRDL and Sun's attention. Licking the pudding off he smiled once again. "Damn tasty." Jaune moved to stand side by side with Sun. "Though not really my preferred flavor, I thought I raised you better boy." Jaune threw a fun little inflection on the final word, as a father would who was teasingly reprimanding a child.

Once he was certain everyone's attention was focused on him he tossed the pudding cup at Sky Lark, the farthest away member of Team CRDL, through years of training in an instant everyone paying attention to him had their eyes divert away from Jaune himself and followed the pudding cup that Sky caught masterfully. When all eyes returned to him after that split moment of distraction Jaune had picked a fresh orange from the pile of food that Sun still held. Jaune's theft was so skillfully orchestrated that Sun didn't even notice him removing the orange from his arms.

"You got a little carried away didn't you sonny, I don't think they were expecting anyone to be so brazen as to take as much as you did during this little test." Juane could only hope Sun caught on or at the very least would be too confused to actually think to say anything for the next few moments while he handled this.

"What test?"

Jaune gave Cardin a raised eyebrow as he carefully peeled the orange. "Oh, come on, you look like a smart guy." Jaune spoke panderingly, gesturing with the hand that held the partially peeled orange, making sure that Cardin's eyes were being drawn to specific places in the room. There was no real test here, but that wasn't immediately obvious, especially with where he had gestured too.

In the odd place around the room, groups of people could be seen eating food that wasn't the iron rations. This, of course, was food they had brought in themselves for elsewhere but Cardin and his team did not need to know that.

Jaune could see the gears not quite turning yet behind Cardin's glossy eyed look as he tried to form an actual thought on his own. Jaune couldn't afford to spend his entire night here waiting for Cardin to figure out his insinuation on his own so he gestured toward the two professors watching the room with his spare hand. "Why do you think only two people are watching this entire room and they barely even bother patrolling or even watching the exits."

"Wait, you mean..." Cardin looked at the two professors and then the exit, a smile crossing his face. "Come on boy's, we don't need to bother with this anymore, how desperate would we be if we ate something one of their kind touched."

Jaune watched the quartet leave and rolled his eyes at how dumb they could be, but that was hardly his problem, turning his attention back to Sun he kept his look a simple bored expression like he could not give a damn currently even though he wanted to grab Sun by the tail and twist, demanding to know why he was in Vale and at Beacon. He wanted to, ever so badly he wanted too but instead, he sent the Faunus a bemused shrug. "You should probably get going before they discovered I lied to them, they might be looking for a reprisal if their food run doesn't go a smoothly as you own."

Sun was confused over how that whole sequence had turned around the way it had, he was expecting to lose a hard-fought fight just now and to lose his pilfered good, to simply be down a single pudding cup and apparently an Orange as well, he was a little flabbergasted on when exactly his new friend had lifted that.

Jaune swiftly made his way back to his tent, glad he prevented what would have ultimately been a headache for himself down the line yet at the same time he was annoyed at this change to his formula.

Sun would never get into Beacon without his direct assistance, and he hadn't bothered even trying that since well before Yang's second life.

It never ceased to amaze him how something so minor as a meeting with Ozpin a few months prior to this date could cause such a shift. It was Ozpin to blame on this point, the headmaster having no doubt thought up some way to manipulate himself and his fake Semblance to his advantage.

Yang often wondered why he was so paranoid about Ozpin across his many lives, well this right here is the basis for that paranoia. Ozpin would seemingly concoct wild plans through a paranoid imagination that in this instance somehow brought Sun Wukong to Beacon as a student.

Jaune was glad that it was just getting late enough that when he returned to his tent he could easily say he was turning in for the night, tomorrow was an important day after all.

* * *

Ozpin sipped from a fresh cup of coffee, across his desk sat a large collection of empty cups already as he remained transfixed on watching Jaune Arc.

The evening's events had been interesting to watch, to say the least, he thought, even Glynda who had stayed up till the point Jaune had retired for the evening couldn't argue that the boy warranted a great deal of attention as well as interest.

Neither Glynda or himself were sure how much of what occurred was due to Jaune's Semblance, each had made mention of certain events that occurred through the time spent observing the young man that were agreed upon to be instances of his Semblance dictating an event. The only two moments that were mutually agreed upon where his interference between Sun Wukong and a group of aggressive human's. Ozpin had made note of their identities to keep track of them but did nothing currently about their actions. The other moment was when Yang Xiao Long returned with Pyrrha Nikos in tow, Jaune had appeared put off with the presence of Pyrrha at that moment in time, it was only a momentary facial expression but he clearly hadn't liked what his Semblance had shown him.

Though whatever his Semblance did show it didn't make him any less of a perfect host, greeting Pyrrha warmly and after a few minutes of conversation between Her and himself excusing himself from the tent.

This was when he had left to help Sun but Glynda had noted that before Jaune left the tent he had paid special interest in pairing Ms. Rose with Ms. Nikos.

Ozpin hadn't caught that, to interested in where Jaune was heading but after rewatching that moment repeatedly he was sure Glynda had been right. Jaune had pushed Pyrrha and Ruby together but he wasn't sure if that was on purpose or if his Semblance had told him it was a more favorable outcome of what else might have occurred.

Watching the replay again for what felt like the hundredth time already he was certain of his hypothesis, Ruby and Pyrrha were paired together by some necessity to prevent Weiss and Pyrrha from pairing together.

Ozpin had no idea what exactly that meant but with a sigh and a wistful look at his clock he once again picked up his datapad that held the master copy of the Jump pads for tomorrow and with tired eyes once again began to adjust the pads with the newest information provided to him.

* * *

 **Tidyfrog: I'm back from my vacation and have been working through both my actual job and my inbox, sorting out what is my priority at the moment, well after my actual job anyways.**

 **I have a small collection of chapters I will be sifting through in coming weeks, a few more from Blackwal here that he has tagged as low priority and one that he has tagged as ASAP, so obviously I'm going to not do that one first.**

* * *

 **So TF is finally back and working again, love her to death for dealing with my nonsensical methods of writing, she is a saint.**

 **So this is a long Chapter and it gets things rolling slowly for the Emerald Forest initiation to follow. Jaune carefully pulling the strings necessary to arrange his friends the way they should be on the oh so important day.**

 **Neo and Sun are factors he has to deal with, though as I have eluded to in this chapter while Neo was unexpected he has had to account for her in the past, while Sun is the true wildcard, the Monkey Faunus never came to Beacon without he expressed help in previous lives and the last time he had done so was so far in the past that any knowledge he might believe he remembers from such ancient lives will be horribly remembered and applied.**

 **Next.**

 **For those who worry that the Ozpin from the original 38 chapters and the new Ozpin appearing since are too different well, you are right.**

 **The Previous Ozpin was immediately suspicious of Jaune and his actions which I feel he had every right to be paranoid, Jaune in the earlier chapters acted in a way that aroused Ozpins suspicion in a very negative way.**

 **The new Ozpin has much more promising view of Jaune in the way Jaune has acted and behaved since he fell under Ozpin's radar, also the introduction of Jaune's fabricated Semblance and his desire to use said Semblance has him wanting to work with Jaune as opposed to fighting against him.**

 **So yeah, that's why the second Ozpin seems like such a large shift from the first.**

 **Anyways, that's it for this chapter, as always lemme know what you all think, even if it's just to tell me that I suck.**


End file.
